Mal 3:9. Ye are cursed with the curse, and yet ye defraud me, even the whole nation.” The reason why Israel waits in vain for the judgment and the salvation dawning with it, is not to be found in God, but in the people, in the fact, that from time immemorial they have transgressed the commandments of God (see Isa 43:27; Eze 2:3; Hos 10:9). And yet they regard themselves as righteous. They reply to the call to repentance by saying, בּמּה נשׁוּב, wherein, i.e., in what particular, shall we turn? The prophet thereupon shows them their sin: they do what no man should presume to attempt - they try to defraud God in the tithe and heave-offering, namely, by either not paying them at all, or not paying them as they should into the house of God. קבע, which only occurs here and at Pro 22:23, signifies to defraud, to overreach. המּעשׂר וגתר is either an accusative of free subordination, or else we must supply the preposition ב from the question itself. On the tithe see Lev 27:30., Num 18:20., and Deu 14:22. (see also my Bibl. Ant. i. p. 337ff.); and on the heave-offering (terūmâh), the portion of his income lifted off from the rest, for the purposes of divine worship, see my Bibl. Ant. i. p. 245. And this they do, notwithstanding the fact that God has already visited them with severe punishment, viz., with the curse of barrenness and of the failure of the harvest. We may see from Mal 3:10-12, that the curse with which they were smitten consisted in this. ואתי is adversative: yet ye defraud me, and indeed the whole nation, and not merely certain individuals.
Verses 10-12
Mal 3:10. “Bring ye all the tithe into the treasure-house, that there may be consumption in my house, and prove me now herewith, saith Jehovah of hosts, if I do not open you the sluices of heaven, and pour you out a blessing to superabundance. Mal 3:11. And I will rebuke the devourer for you, that he may not destroy the fruit of your ground; and your vine will not miscarry in the field, saith Jehovah of hosts. Mal 3:12. And all nations will call you blessed; for ye will be a land of good pleasure, saith Jehovah of hosts.” In Mal 3:10 the emphasis lies upon kol: the whole of the tithe they are to bring, and not merely a portion of it, and so defraud the Lord; for the tithe was paid to Jehovah for His servants the Levites (Num 18:24). It was delivered, at least after the times of the later kings, at the
