Malachi says the people were robbing God in their tithes and contributions Malachi 3:8. The accusation comes after they ask, "How shall we return?" Malachi 3:7–8. The passage says the nation is under a curse because of this withholding Malachi 3:9.
In Malachi 3:8–9, the speaker accuses the community of doing something unthinkable: stealing from God. The people push back and ask how they could have done that. These verses sit inside a larger back-and-forth pattern in Malachi where God makes a charge, the people respond with a skeptical question, and God supplies a concrete example. Here the concrete example is not vague disloyalty but a measurable failure in giving what was due.
Malachi 3:8–9 presents a direct accusation from God to the community: they are “robbing” him. The text itself explains what that means in this setting: they are withholding “tithes and offerings.” The people challenge the charge (“How have we robbed you?”), and God answers with a concrete, measurable example rather than a vague complaint.
A careful answer keeps the immediate passage, the book's argument, and the whole-Bible storyline together, so the question is answered in context instead of as a detached idea.
Start with Malachi 3:8, then read the surrounding section so the answer stays connected to the passage's flow.
8Will a man rob God? yet you rob me. But you say, Wherein have we robbed you? In tithes and offerings.