²⁵ But in the fifth year you may eat of their fruit, that their yield may be increased for you: I am the Lord your God.

⁹ You have looked for much, but it came to little, and when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? says the Lord of hosts. Because my house lies in ruins, while all of you hurry off to your own houses.^{(A) 10} Therefore the heavens above you have withheld the dew, and the earth has withheld its produce.^{(B) 11} And I have called for a drought^[a] on the land and the hills, on the grain, the new wine, the oil, on what the soil produces, on humans and animals, and on all their labors.”^(C)

Do Not Rob God

⁸ Will anyone rob God? Yet you are robbing me! But you say, “How are we robbing you?” In your tithes and offerings!^{(A) 9} You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me—the whole nation of you! ¹⁰ Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in my house, and thus put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts; see if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you an overflowing blessing.^(B)

¹⁸ Consider from this day on, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month. Since the day that the foundation of the Lord’s temple was laid, consider:^{(A) 19} Is there any seed left in the barn? Do the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the olive tree still yield nothing? From this day on I will bless you.”

⁴ “Is it a time for you yourselves to live in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins?^{(A) 5} Now therefore thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider how you have fared.^{(B) 6} You have sown much and harvested little; you eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill; you clothe yourselves, but no one is warm; and you that earn wages earn wages to put them into a bag with holes.^(C)

The Value of Diligence

³ “If you follow my statutes and keep my commandments and observe them faithfully,^{(A) 4} I will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its produce, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.