7. You, like your ancestors before you, have turned away from my laws and have not kept them. Turn back to me, and I will turn to you. But you ask, ‘What must we do to turn back to you?’
8. I ask you, is it right for a person to cheat God? Of course not, yet you are cheating me. ‘How?’ you ask. In the matter of tithes and offerings.
9. A curse is on all of you because the whole nation is cheating me.
10. Bring the full amount of your tithes to the Temple, so that there will be plenty of food there. Put me to the test and you will see that I will open the windows of heaven and pour out on you in abundance all kinds of good things.
11. I will not let insects destroy your crops, and your grapevines will be loaded with grapes.
12. Then the people of all nations will call you happy, because your land will be a good place to live in.
13. “You have said terrible things about me,” says the Lord. “But you ask, ‘What have we said about you?’
14. You have said, ‘It's useless to serve God. What's the use of doing what he says or of trying to show the Lord Almighty that we are sorry for what we have done?
15. As we see it, proud people are the ones who are happy. Evil people not only prosper, but they test God's patience with their evil deeds and get away with it.’ ”
16. Then the people who feared the Lord spoke to one another, and the Lord listened and heard what they said. In his presence, there was written down in a book a record of those who feared the Lord and respected him.
17. “They will be my people,” says the Lord Almighty. “On the day when I act, they will be my very own. I will be merciful to them, as a father is merciful to the son who serves him.
18. Once again my people will see the difference between what happens to the righteous and to the wicked, to the person who serves me and the one who does not.”