Midrasch zu Malachi 3:8

(Exod. 26:7:) THEN YOU SHALL MAKE TENT SHEETS OF GOATS' HAIR <FOR A TENT OVER THE TABERNACLE;>…. This text is related (to Mal. 1:2): I HAVE LOVED YOU, SAYS THE LORD.²⁹Tanh., Exod. 7:9. Who spoke this verse? Malachi spoke it. When? When he rebuked Israel. Malachi said to them (in Mal. 3:8): WOULD ANYONE ROB GOD? <YET YOU ARE ROBBING ME.> They answered him (ibid., cont.): HOW ARE WE ROBBING YOU? Our masters have said of the generation of Malachi: He rebuked them, and they answered him. He said to them (ibid.): WOULD ANYONE ROB (QB') GOD? R. Levi said: That (i.e., QB') is an Arabic word.³⁰RH 26ab; M. Pss. 57:2. When an Arab comes to talk with his companion <and> says to him: Are you stealing (GNB) from us? <he says:> Are you robbing (QB') us? (Ibid.:) WOULD ANYONE ROB (QB') GOD. Then he said (ibid., cont.): BUT YOU SAY: HOW ARE WE ROBBING YOU? IN THE TITHE AND THE PRIESTLY SHARE, because they are not collecting them properly. Again he said to them (in Mal. 1:2): IS NOT ESAU JACOB'S BROTHER? And you say (ibid.): HOW HAVE YOU LOVED US? By universal custom, when someone has two sons, one first-born and one younger, who receives the most? The first-born. Esau came out < of the womb> first, as stated (in Gen. 25:25): THE FIRST (i.e., Esau) CAME FORTH RUDDY. It was proper for him to receive two shares, but I did not act in this way. Instead Jacob received two shares, this world and the world to come. Esau said so to Jacob (in Gen. 33:12): LET US GO ON OUR JOURNEY…. Let both of us walk in the world <together>.³¹Gen. R. 78:14; Deut. R. 1:20; Tanna deve Eliyahu Zuta 19; y‘AZ 2:1 (40c); cf. T‘AZ 3:4; PRE 37. Jacob said to him: Take your world and go away. Thus it is stated (in Gen. 33:14): PLEASE LET MY LORD GO AWAY…, UNTIL I COME TO MY LORD IN SEIR. R. Jacob said: I went through all the Scripture <to see> whether Jacob did or did not go to Seir, and I found no < indication that he did so>. Then when is he going <there>? In the Age to come, as stated (in Obad., vs. 21): FOR SAVIORS SHALL GO UP ON MOUNT ZION <TO JUDGE THE MOUNTAIN OF ESAU,>…. Therefore (in Mal. 1:2): YET I HAVE LOVED JACOB. Jacob is a partner with Esau in this world; {I <am a> } [but Esau is no] partner with Jacob in the world to come. Solomon said (in Prov. 5:17): LET IT BE FOR YOU ALONE AND NOT FOR STRANGERS ALONG WITH YOU.

And thou shalt make curtains of goats’ hair for a tent (Exod. 26:7). Scripture says elsewhere in allusion to this verse: I have loved you, saith the Lord, yet ye say: “Wherein hast thou loved us?” (Mal. 1:2). Malachi uttered this verse in rebuking Israel. He said to them: Will a man rob God? Yet ye rob Me (ibid. 3:8). And they replied: Wherein have we robbed thee¹²Their response seems to indicate that they were robbing the prophet and not the Almighty.? (ibid.). Our sages declared: Malachi rebuked his generation, but they replied to him: Wherein have we robbed Thee?