Future Reward of the Godless and Faithful

13 ‘You have said terrible things about me,’ says the Lord. ‘You ask, “What have we said about you?” 14 You have said, “It is useless to serve God, and what do we gain from the Lord of hosts by keeping his commands, and walking mournfully in funeral garb before him? 15 So now we call the proud happy, evildoers thrive: they dare God and escape unharmed.” ’

16 Such things those who revered the Lord spoke to one another, and the Lord took notice, and a record was written before him of those who revered the Lord and those who keep in mind his name. 17 ‘They will be mine,’ says the Lord of hosts, ‘my special possession on that day that I am preparing. I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him. 18 Once again my people will see the difference between the righteous and the wicked, between the person who serves God and the person who does not.’

4 ‘The day is coming that will burn like a furnace, and all the proud and all evildoers will be stubble, and the day that is coming will burn them up,’ says the Lord of hosts, ‘leaving neither root nor branch. 2 But to you who revere my name there will arise the sun of righteousness with healing in its wings, and you will run free like calves let out from their stall. 3 In the day when I act you will tread down the wicked, they will be as ashes under the soles of your feet,’ says the Lord of hosts.

4 ‘Remember the law of Moses my servant, statutes and judgments which I gave him at Horeb for all Israel. 5 I am about to send to you Elijah the prophet, before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes. 6 He will turn fathers’ hearts to their sons and sons’ hearts to their fathers, so that I will not come and strike the earth with judgement.’