Commentaries:
Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown
rob--literally, "cover": hence, defraud. Do ye call defrauding God no sin to be "returned" from (Malachi 3:7)? Yet ye have done so to Me in respect to the tithes due to Me, namely, the tenth of all the remainder after the first-fruits were paid, which tenth was paid to the Levites for their support (Leviticus 27:30-33): a tenth paid by the Levites to the priests (Numbers 18:26-28): a second tenth paid by the people for the entertainment of the Levites, and their own families, at the tabernacle (Deuteronomy 12:18): another tithe every third year for the poor, etc. (Deuteronomy 14:28-29).
offerings--the first-fruits, not less than one-sixtieth part of the corn, wine, and oil (Deuteronomy 18:4; Nehemiah 13:10, Nehemiah 13:12). The priests had this perquisite also, the tenth of the tithes which were the Levites perquisite. But they appropriated all the tithes, robbing the Levites of their due nine-tenths; as they did also, according to JOSEPHUS, before the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus. Thus doubly God was defrauded, the priests not discharging aright their sacrificial duties, and robbing God of the services of the Levites, who were driven away by destitution [GROTIUS].
Reproof for the non-payment of tithes and offerings, which is the cause of their national calamities, and promise of prosperity on their paying them.
from . . . days of your fathers--Ye live as your fathers did when they brought on themselves the Babylonian captivity, and ye wish to follow in their steps. This shows that nothing but God's unchanging long-suffering had prevented their being long ago "consumed" (Malachi 3:6).
Return unto me--in penitence.
I will return unto you--in blessings.
Wherein, etc.-- (Malachi 3:16). The same insensibility to their guilt continues: they speak in the tone of injured innocence, as if God calumniated them.
Other commentary entries containing this verse:
Zechariah 5:4
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