8. “People should not steal things from God, but you stole things from me. “You say, ‘What did we steal from you?’ “You should have given me one-tenth of your things. You should have given me special gifts.
9. In this way your whole nation has stolen things from me, so bad things are happening to you.”
10. The Lord All-Powerful says, “Try this test. Bring one-tenth of your things to me. Put them in the treasury. Bring food to my house. Test me! If you do these things, I will surely bless you. Good things will come to you like rain falling from the sky. You will have more than enough of everything.
11. I will not let pests destroy your crops. All your grapevines will produce grapes.” This is what the Lord All-Powerful said.
12. “People from other nations will be good to you. You will have a wonderful country.” This is what the Lord All-Powerful said.
13. The Lord says, “You said cruel things to me.” But you ask, “What did we say about you?”
14. You said, “It is useless to worship God. We did what the Lord All-Powerful told us, but we didn’t gain anything. We cried like people at a funeral to show we were sorry for our sins, but it didn’t help.
15. We think proud people are happy. Evil people succeed. They do evil things to test God’s patience, and God does not punish them.”
16. Then the Lord’S followers spoke with each other, and the Lord listened to them. There is a book in front of him. In that book are the names of his followers. They are the people who honor the Lord’S name.