Malachi 3:9-12
Context3:9 You are bound for judgment 1 because you are robbing me – this whole nation is guilty. 2
3:10 “Bring the entire tithe into the storehouse 3 so that there may be food in my temple. Test me in this matter,” says the Lord who rules over all, “to see if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until there is no room for it all. 3:11 Then I will stop the plague 4 from ruining your crops, 5 and the vine will not lose its fruit before harvest,” says the Lord who rules over all. 3:12 “All nations will call you happy, for you indeed will live in 6 a delightful land,” says the Lord who rules over all.
1 tn Heb “cursed with a curse” that is, “under a curse” (so NIV, NLT, CEV).
2 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.
3 tn The Hebrew phrase בֵּית הָאוֹצָר (bet ha’otsar, here translated “storehouse”) refers to a kind of temple warehouse described more fully in Nehemiah (where the term לִשְׁכָּה גְדוֹלָה [lishkah gÿdolah, “great chamber”] is used) as a place for storing grain, frankincense, temple vessels, wine, and oil (Neh 13:5). Cf. TEV “to the Temple.”
4 tn Heb “the eater” (אֹכֵל, ’okhel), 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.”
5 tn Heb “and I will rebuke for you the eater and it will not ruin for you the fruit of the ground.”
6 tn Heb “will be” (so NAB, NRSV); TEV “your land will be a good place to live in.”