Malachi 3:6-12
New English Translation
Resistance to the Lord through Selfishness
6 “Since, I, the Lord, do not go back on my promises,[a] you, sons of Jacob, have not perished. 7 From the days of your ancestors you have ignored[b] my commandments[c] and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. “But you say, ‘How should we return?’ 8 Can a person rob[d] God? You are indeed robbing me, but you say, ‘How are we robbing you?’ In tithes and contributions![e] 9 You are bound for judgment[f] because you are robbing me—this whole nation is guilty.[g]
10 “Bring the entire tithe into the storehouse[h] so that there may be food in my temple. Test me in this matter,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, “to see if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out blessing for you until there is no room for it all. 11 Then I will stop the plague[i] from ruining your crops,[j] and the vine will not lose its fruit before harvest,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. 12 “All nations will call you blessed, for you indeed will live in[k] a delightful land,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- Malachi 3:6 tn Heb “do not change.” This refers to God’s ongoing commitment to his covenant promises to Israel.
- Malachi 3:7 tn Heb “turned aside from.”
- Malachi 3:7 tn Or “statutes” (so NAB, NASB, NRSV); NIV “decrees”; NLT “laws.”
- Malachi 3:8 tc The LXX presupposes an underlying Hebrew text of עָקַב (ʿaqav, “deceive”), a metathesis of קָבַע (qavaʿ, “rob”), in all four uses of the verb here (vv. 8-9). The intent probably is to soften the impact of “robbing” God, but the language of the passage is intentionally bold and there is no reason to go against the reading of the MT (which is followed here by most English versions).
- Malachi 3:8 sn The tithes and contributions mentioned here are probably those used to sustain the Levites (see Num 18:8, 11, 19, 21-24).
- Malachi 3:9 tn Heb “cursed with a curse” that is, “under a curse” (so NIV, NLT, CEV).
- Malachi 3:9 tn The phrase “is guilty” is not present in the Hebrew text but is implied, and has been supplied in the translation for clarification and stylistic reasons.
- Malachi 3:10 tn The Hebrew phrase בֵּית הָאוֹצָר (bet haʾotsar, here translated “storehouse”) refers to a kind of temple warehouse described more fully in Nehemiah (where the term לִשְׁכָּה גְדוֹלָה [lishkah gedolah, “great chamber”] is used) as a place for storing grain, frankincense, temple vessels, wine, and oil (Neh 13:5). Cf. TEV “to the Temple.”
- Malachi 3:11 tn Heb “the eater” (אֹכֵל, ʾokhel), a general term for any kind of threat to crops and livelihood. This is understood as a reference to a locust plague by a number of English versions: NAB, NRSV “the locust”; NIV “pests”; NCV, TEV “insects.”
- Malachi 3:11 tn Heb “and I will rebuke for you the eater and it will not ruin for you the fruit of the ground.”
- Malachi 3:12 tn Heb “will be” (so NAB, NRSV); TEV “your land will be a good place to live in.”
Malachi 3:6-12
Christian Standard Bible
6 “Because I, the Lord, have not changed,(A) you descendants of Jacob have not been destroyed.[a](B)
Robbing God
7 “Since the days of your ancestors, you have turned from my statutes; you have not kept them.(C) Return to me,(D) and I will return to you,”(E) says the Lord of Armies.
Yet you ask, “How can we return?”
8 “Will a man rob(F) God? Yet you are robbing me!”
“How do we rob you?” you ask.
“By not making the payments of the tenth and the contributions.(G) 9 You are suffering under a curse, yet[b] you—the whole nation—are still robbing me. 10 Bring the full tenth into the storehouse(H) so that there may be food in my house.(I) Test me in this way,”(J) says the Lord of Armies. “See if I will not open the floodgates of heaven(K) and pour out a blessing for you without measure.(L) 11 I will rebuke the devourer[c](M) for you, so that it will not ruin the produce of your land and your vine in your field will not fail to produce fruit,” says the Lord of Armies. 12 “Then all the nations will consider you fortunate, for you will be a delightful land,” says the Lord of Armies.
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