sanctuary, where store-chambers were built for the purpose (cf. 2Ch 31:11.; Neh 10:38-39; Neh 12:44; Neh 13:12). Tereph signifies here food, or consumption, as in Pro 31:15; Psa 111:5. בּזאת, through this, i.e., through their giving to God what they are under obligation to give Him, they are to prove God, whether in His attitude towards them He is no longer the holy and righteous God (Mal 2:17; Mal 3:6). Then will they also learn, that He causes the promised blessing to flow in the richest abundance to those who keep His commandments. אם לא is not a particle of asseveration or oath (Koehler), but an indirect question: whether not. Opening the sluices of heaven is a figure, denoting the most copious supply of blessing, so that it flows down from heaven like a pouring rain (as in 2Ki 7:2). עד בּלי די, till there is no more need, i.e., in superabundance. This thought is individualized in Mal 3:11. Everything that could injure the fruits of the land God will take away. גּער, to rebuke practically, i.e., to avert the intention. אכל, the devourer, is here the locust, so called from its insatiable voracity. Shikkēl, to miscarry, is affirmed of the vine, when it has set a good quantity of grapes, which perish and drop off before they ripen. In consequence of this blessing, all nations will call Israel blessed (Mal 3:12), because its land will be an object of pleasure to every one (cf. Zec 7:14; Zec 8:13, Zec 8:23).
Verses 13-15
The impatient murmuring of the nation. - Mal 3:13. “Your words do violence to me, saith Jehovah; and ye say, What do we converse against Thee? Mal 3:14. Ye say, It is vain to serve God; and what gain is it, that we have kept His guard, and have gone about in deep mourning before Jehovah of hosts? Mal 3:15. And now we call the proud blessed: not only have the doers of wickedness been built up, but they have also tempted God and have been saved.” After the Lord has disclosed to the people the cause of His withholding His blessing, He shows them still further, that their murmuring against Him is unjust, and that the coming day of judgment will bring to light the distinction between the wicked and those who fear God. חזק with על, to be strong over any one, does not mean to be harsh or burdensome, but to do violence to a person, to overpower him (cf. Exo 12:33; 2Sa 24:4, etc.). The niphal nidbar has a reciprocal meaning, to converse with one another (cf. Eze 33:30). The conversations which they
