These words indicate that God found fault not just with a few individuals but with the entire nation. A person’s income was often a private matter, and it was easy to “cheat” God by offering him less than what the law required. This sin could easily go undetected by the leaders. In Malachi’s day, this sin of “robbing God” became common practice. But even though God’s people could hide their sin from men, they could not hide it from the all-seeing eyes of the Lord, who exposes their sin in this verse.
9 You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you.