8 Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. ^xBut you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ ^yIn your tithes and contributions. 9 ^zYou are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you. 10 ^aBring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby ^bput me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open ^cthe windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.

7 ^sWho serves as a soldier at his own expense? ^tWho plants a vineyard without eating any of its fruit? Or who tends a flock without getting some of the milk?

8 Do I say these things on human authority? Does not the Law say the same? 9 For it is written in the Law of Moses, ^u“You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain.” Is it for oxen that God is concerned? 10 Does he not certainly speak for our sake? It was written ^vfor our sake, because ^wthe plowman should plow in hope and the thresher thresh in hope of sharing in the crop. 11 ^xIf we have sown spiritual things among you, is it too much if we reap material things from you? 12 If others share this rightful claim on you, do not we even more?

Nevertheless, ^ywe have not made use of this right, but we endure anything ^zrather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ.

17 Let the elders ^zwho rule well be considered worthy of ^adouble honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching. 18 For the Scripture says, ^b“You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain,” and, ^c“The laborer deserves his wages.”