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Are there yet the treasures of wickedness - Such as false balances and deceitful weights. See on Hosea 12:7; (note). This shows that they were not Doing Justly. They did not give to each his due.
Are there yet - Still after all the warnings and long-suffering of God, “the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked?” “Treasures of wickedness” are treasures gotten by wickedness; yet it means too that he wicked shall have no treasure, no fruit, but his wickedness. He treasureth up treasures, but of wickedness; as James saith, “Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days” James 5:3, that is, of the miseries that shall come upon them Micah 6:14); as He says, “He gave them their desire, and sent leanness withal into their soul” Psalm 106:15; and James, “it shall eat your flesh as it were fire” James 5:3. Even a pagan said,, “Gain gotten by wickedness is loss;” and that, as being “abominable” or “accursed” or, one might say, “bewrathed,” lying under the wrath and curse of God. Rib.: “What they minish from the measure, that they add to the wrath of God and the vengeance which shall come upon them; what is lacking to the measure shall be supplied out of the wrath of God.” The Ephah was a corn-measure Amos 8:5, containing about six bushels; the rich, in whose house it was, were the sellers; they were the necessaries of life then, which the rich retailers of corn were selling dishonestly, at the price of the lives of the poor. Our subtler ways of sin cheat ourselves, not God. In what ways do not competitive employers use the scant measure which is accursed? What else is all our competitive trade, our cheapness, our wealth, but scant measure to the poor, making their wages lean, full and overflowing with the wrath of God?
A close, selfish spirit seems to prevent men from giving to God His own. The Lord made a special covenant with men, that if they would regularly set apart the portion designated for the advancement of Christ's kingdom, the Lord would bless them abundantly, so that there would not be room to receive His gifts. But if men withhold that which belongs to God, the Lord plainly declares, “Ye are cursed with a curse.” ... CS 77.1
Those who realize their dependence upon God, will feel that they must be honest with their fellow men, and, above all, they must be honest with God, from whom come all the blessings of life. The evasion of the positive commands of God concerning tithes and offerings, is registered in the books of heaven as robbery toward Him. CS 77.2
No man who is dishonest with God or with his fellow men can truly prosper. The most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth, says, “Thou shalt not have in thy bag divers weights, a great and a small. Thou shalt not have in thine house divers measures, a great and a small. But thou shalt have a perfect and just weight, a perfect and just measure shalt thou have: that thy days may be lengthened in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. For all that do such things, and all that do unrighteously, are an abomination unto the Lord thy God.” Through the prophet Micah, the Lord again expresses His abhorrence of dishonesty: “Are there yet the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and the scant measure that is abominable? Shall I count them pure with the wicked balances? ... Therefore also will I make thee sick in smiting thee, in making thee desolate because of thy sins.”—The Review and Herald, December 17, 1889. CS 77.3
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