Nos. 5-7: Recitative - “Thus saith the Lord”; Aria - “But who may abide the day of His coming?”; Chorus - “And He shall purify”
Haggai 2:6-7a; Malachi 3:1b-3
”[For] thus saith the Lord of hosts; Yet once, [it is] a little while, and I will shake the heavens, [and] the earth, [and] the sea, [and] the dry land; [And] I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come.”
“The Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to His temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, He shall come, saith the Lord of hosts. But who may abide the day of His coming? And who shall stand when He appeareth? For He is like a refiner’s fire, [and like fuller’s soap: And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver:] and He shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness.”
Few openings in music are as dramatic as the bass proclaiming “Thus saith the Lord!” amidst tightly dotted D-minor chords. The contrast with the comforting message of the tenor in the previous section is undeniable - the Christ is come not only to comfort His people in their sufferings, but to purify them from their uncleanness by passing them, as it were, through refiner’s fire. He will also “shake…the heavens, the earth, the sea, the dry land,” and indeed “all nations.” This is not a light and fluffy visit of affirmation, but a dreadful and unmistakable visitation in judgment. Handel creates memorable sound effects in the recitative and aria, setting “shake” and “refiner” to virtuosic melismas that make a powerful impression on the listener. For good measure, Handel also repeats the B section of the aria, which is unusual in the da capo form common at the time, giving us another dose of refining treatment before the chorus enters.
The chorus itself has an extensive series of melismas on the word “purify,” continuing the theme of troubling visitation with a salutary purpose - “that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness,” not in hypocrisy, or double-mindedness, or in merely going through an outward ritual. As is virtually always the case when a prophet or Christ himself addresses the Jewish nation or the priestly class, the message is directed squarely toward us in our own hypocrisy and spiritual laziness.
Refining silver in ancient times required heating ore to at least 1,450 ºF, allowing the lead and other materials in the ore to separate from the silver. The image here, then, is one of Christ’s people being purified through undergoing tremendous suffering and hardship. One could see “the sons of Levi” referring specifically to the priestly tribe of Levi itself, or referring figuratively to the people of Israel as a whole, in either case removing all impurities from the whole and leaving a remnant of faithful people.
The two keys here are D minor and G minor. Both are serious keys, with D minor trending more towards finality and a sense of judgment (think Mozart’s Don Giovanni, “Dies irae” and the D-minor piano concerto) and G minor leaning more towards lament and contemplation. It is interesting to think of them as the opposites of their parallel majors - D major is the most triumphant of all keys, particularly so since trumpets and timpani always seem to pop up in that key in the Baroque, and G major is one of the most joyful of all keys, often occurring in conjunction with quick tempos and light passagework (both Preludes and Fugues from the Well-Tempered Clavier, Beethoven G-major piano concerto, etc.).