7 “From the adays of your fathers you have turned aside from My statutes and have not kept them. bReturn to Me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord of hosts. “But you say, ‘How shall we return?’

You Have Robbed God

8 “Will a man 1rob God? Yet you are robbing Me! But you say, ‘How have we robbed You?’ In atithes and 2offerings.

9 “You are acursed with a curse, for you are 1robbing Me, the whole nation of you!

10 “aBring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be 1food in My house, and test Me now in this,” says the Lord of hosts, “if I will not bopen for you the windows of heaven and cpour out for you a blessing until 2dit overflows.

11 “Then I will rebuke the adevourer for you, so that it will not 1destroy the fruits of the ground; nor will your vine in the field cast its grapes,” says the Lord of hosts.

12 “aAll the nations will call you blessed, for you shall be a bdelightful land,” says the Lord of hosts.

13 “Your words have been 1arrogant against Me,” says the Lord. “Yet you say, ‘What have we spoken against You?’

14 “You have said, ‘It is avain to serve God; and what bprofit is it that we have kept His charge, and that we have walked in mourning before the Lord of hosts?

15 ‘So now we acall the arrogant blessed; not only are the doers of wickedness built up but they also test God and bescape.’ ”

The Book of Remembrance

16 Then those who 1feared the Lord spoke to one another, and the Lord agave attention and heard it, and a bbook of remembrance was written before Him for those who 1fear the Lord and who esteem His name.

17 “They will be aMine,” says the Lord of hosts, “on the bday that I 1prepare My 2cown possession, and I will 3spare them as a man 3dspares his own son who serves him.”

18 So you will again adistinguish between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve Him.