---
title: "Malachi 3 – Catholic Bible (CPDV) & Latin Vulgate · Bless"
url: https://blessbible.app/bible/malachi/3/
description: "Christ shall come to his temple, and purify the priesthood. They that continue… Malachi 3 in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin Vulgate."
---

# Malachi 3

Malachi 3 is chapter 3 of 4 in the Book of Malachi. Here are all 18 verses in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin of the Clementine Vulgate beside them.

> Christ shall come to his temple, and purify the priesthood. They that continue in their evil ways shall be punished: but true penitents shall receive a blessing.
>
> — Bp. Richard Challoner, chapter summary

## Malachi 3 (Catholic Public Domain Version)

1. Behold, I send my angel, and he will prepare the way before my face. And presently the Sovereign, whom you seek, and the angel of testimony, whom you desire, will arrive at his temple. Behold, he approaches, says the Lord of hosts.
2. And who will be able to consider the day of his advent, and who will stand firm in order to see him? For he is like a refining fire, and like the fuller’s herb.
3. And he will sit refining and cleansing the silver, and he will purge the sons of Levi, and he will gather them like gold and like silver, and they will offer sacrifices to the Lord in justice.
4. And the sacrifice of Judah and of Jerusalem will please the Lord, just as in the days of past generations, and as in the ancient years.
5. And I will approach you in judgment, and I will be a swift witness against evil-doers, and adulterers, and perjurers, and those who cheat the hired hand in his wages, the widows and the orphans, and who oppress the traveler, and who have not feared me, says the Lord of hosts.
6. For I am the Lord, and I do not change. And you, the sons of Jacob, have not been consumed.
7. For, from the days of your fathers, you have withdrawn from my ordinances and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. And you have said, “In what way, shall we return?”
8. If a man will afflict God, then you greatly afflict me. And you have said, “In what way, do we afflict you?” In tithes and in first-fruits.
9. And you have been cursed with privation, and you greatly afflict me, even your entire people.
10. Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, and let there be food in my house. And test me about this, says the Lord, as to whether I will not open to you the floodgates of heaven, and pour out to you a blessing, all the way to abundance.
11. And I will rebuke for your sakes the devourer, and he will not corrupt the fruit of your land. Neither will the vine in the field be barren, says the Lord of hosts.
12. And all nations will call you blessed. For you will be a desirable land, says the Lord of hosts.
13. Your words have gathered strength over me, says the Lord.
14. And you have said, “What have we spoken against you?” You have said, “He labors in vain who serves God,” and, “What advantage is it that we have kept his precepts, and that we have walked sorrowfully in the sight of the Lord of hosts?”
15. Now, therefore, we call the arrogant blessed, as if those who work impiety have been built up, and as if they have tempted God and been saved.
16. Then those who fear the Lord spoke, each one with his neighbor. And the Lord paid attention and heeded. And a book of remembrance was written in his sight, for those who fear the Lord and for those who consider his name.
17. And they will be my special possession, says the Lord of hosts, on the day that I act. And I will spare them, just as a man spares his son who serves him.
18. And you shall be converted, and you will see the difference between the just and the impious, and between those who serve God and those who do not serve him.

## Malachi 3 in Latin (Clementine Vulgate, 1592)

1. Ecce ego mitto angelum meum, et præparabit viam ante faciem meam: et statim veniet ad templum suum Dominator quem vos quæritis, et angelus testamenti quem vos vultis. Ecce venit, dicit Dominus exercituum.
2. Et quis poterit cogitare diem adventus ejus, et quis stabit ad videndum eum? ipse enim quasi ignis conflans, et quasi herba fullonum:
3. et sedebit conflans, et emundans argentum: et purgabit filios Levi, et colabit eos quasi aurum et quasi argentum, et erunt Domino offerentes sacrificia in justitia.
4. Et placebit Domino sacrificium Juda et Jerusalem, sicut dies sæculi, et sicut anni antiqui.
5. Et accedam ad vos in judicio, et ero testis velox maleficis, et adulteris, et perjuris, et qui calumniantur mercedem mercenarii, viduas et pupillos, et opprimunt peregrinum, nec timuerunt me, dicit Dominus exercituum.
6. Ego enim Dominus, et non mutor: et vos filii Jacob, non estis consumpti.
7. A diebus enim patrum vestrorum recessistis a legitimis meis, et non custodistis: revertimini ad me, et revertar ad vos, dicit Dominus exercituum. Et dixistis: In quo revertemur?
8. Si affliget homo Deum, quia vos configitis me? Et dixistis: In quo configimus te? In decimis et in primitiis.
9. Et in penuria vos maledicti estis, et me vos configitis gens tota.
10. Inferte omnem decimam in horreum, et sit cibus in domo mea: et probate me super hoc, dicit Dominus: si non aperuero vobis cataractas cæli, et effudero vobis benedictionem usque ad abundantiam:
11. et increpabo pro vobis devorantem, et non corrumpet fructum terræ vestræ, nec erit sterilis vinea in agro, dicit Dominus exercituum.
12. Et beatos vos dicent omnes gentes: eritis enim vos terra desiderabilis, dicit Dominus exercituum.
13. Invaluerunt super me verba vestra, dicit Dominus.
14. Et dixistis: Quid locuti sumus contra te? Dixistis: Vanus est qui servit Deo: et quod emolumentum quia custodivimus præcepta ejus, et quia ambulavimus tristes coram Domino exercituum?
15. Ergo nunc beatos dicimus arrogantes: siquidem ædificati sunt facientes impietatem, et tentaverunt Deum, et salvi facti sunt.
16. Tunc locuti sunt timentes Dominum, unusquisque cum proximo suo: et attendit Dominus, et audivit, et scriptus est liber monumenti coram eo timentibus Dominum, et cogitantibus nomen ejus.
17. Et erunt mihi, ait Dominus exercituum, in die qua ego facio, in peculium: et parcam eis, sicut parcit vir filio suo servienti sibi.
18. Et convertemini, et videbitis quid sit inter justum et impium, et inter servientem Deo et non servientem ei.

## Bishop Challoner's notes

Bp. Richard Challoner, notes on the Douay-Rheims (1750); they comment on its older wording.
- Verse 1: “My angel” … Viz., John the Baptist, the messenger of God, and forerunner of Christ.

## Read at Mass (US)

- Wed, Dec 23, 2026: Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Advent — First Reading, Malachi 3:1-4, 23-24
- Tue, Feb 2, 2027: Presentation of the Lord — First Reading, Malachi 3:1-4
- Thu, Oct 7, 2027 (computed): Our Lady of the Rosary — First Reading, Malachi 3:13-20b
- Thu, Dec 23, 2027 (computed): Thursday of the Fourth Week of Advent — First Reading, Malachi 3:1-4, 23-24

2 more dates through December 31, 2028, in the [liturgical calendar](https://blessbible.app/calendar/).

Citations as published in the USCCB liturgical calendar (principal Mass, first option). Dates after May 31, 2027 are computed by Bless from the US Lectionary cycle — confirm with your parish.

Source: Catholic Public Domain Version (Ronald L. Conte Jr., 2009), public domain; Latin: Clementine Vulgate (1592).