What Does Malachi 3:8 Mean in the King James?
Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
A tithe is literally a tenth, while an offering is a portion lifted up, so the verse names what is withheld with precision.
THE MEANING
The verse places you inside a question about possession: you can deny taking from God while a tenth and a raised contribution remain withheld. Its answer is concrete: the dispute concerns portions named as belonging to God. The question “Wherein?” meets a specific reply.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that only taking something directly from God counts as robbing God; withholding what is due in the tithe and contribution is also named as robbery.
THE ROOT
מַעֲשֵׂר
ma'aser
GROWS FROM
עשר
ʿ-ś-r
Ten; the number ten.
“tithes” in this verse is ma'aser. The Hebrew word for a tithe carries the number ten inside it: it is a tenth, not an undefined gift. That makes the verse’s charge precise: it names a particular portion being withheld.
ALSO GROWS
ʿeser: Ten.
עֶשֶׂר
This is the number held within ma’aser, making the tithe’s measure visible.
ʿasirit: A tenth; one tenth.
עֲשִׂירִית
This form makes explicit the fraction that the word ma’aser names.
ma'aser: Tithe; one tenth.
מַעֲשֵׂר
This is the word Malachi uses for the portion at issue.
תְּרוּמָה
terumah
GROWS FROM
רום
r-w-m
To rise or be high; in a causative form, to raise.
“offerings” in this verse is terumah. Terumah is a contribution associated with lifting or raising. Alongside the counted tenth, the verse names a portion set apart and raised up, giving the accusation two distinct forms.
ALSO GROWS
ram: High or elevated.
רָם
It shares the root’s sense of height with the raised contribution.
herim: To raise or lift up.
הֵרִים
This causative form makes the lifting action in terumah easier to see.
terumah: Contribution; a portion lifted up.
תְּרוּמָה
This is the word translated “offerings” in the verse.
THE PATTERN
What belongs to God remains his claim even when it is withheld or denied.
And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land, or of the fruit of the tree, is the LORD’s: it is holy unto the LORD.Honour the LORD with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase:And he said unto them, Render therefore unto Cæsar the things which be Cæsar’s, and unto God the things which be God’s.THE THREAD
And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land, or of the fruit of the tree, is the LORD’s: it is holy unto the LORD.Malachi’s “tithes” is ma’aser, the same Hebrew word used here. Leviticus names the tithe as the LORD’s, opening Malachi’s charge as the withholding of a portion already marked as his.
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