Bible Strands
Malachi 1:7
By presenting defiled food on My altar. But you ask, ‘How have we defiled You?’ By saying that the table of the LORD is contemptible.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — God addresses the priests who despise His name and ask how they have done so. He identifies their specific failure in ritual practice as the cause of this contempt.
The words — The Hebrew מְגֹאָ֔ל (me.go.'Al) means "defiled," describing the food they are bringing near on God's altar. The term לֶ֣חֶם (Le.chem) "food" is directly tied to their verbal claim that the LORD's table is contemptible.
The thread — Malachi 1:12 repeats the exact accusation that they call the Lord's table defiled and its fruit contemptible. 1 Corinthians 10:21 contrasts drinking the cup of the Lord with drinking the cup of demons, and 1 Corinthians 11:27 addresses eating the bread or drinking the cup in an unworthy manner.
Why it lands — The text requires worshipers to identify their own ritual contempt before God can correct it. It demands that words and offerings align with the reality of God's authority rather than dismissing it.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Ye offer polluted bread upon mine altar; and ye say, Wherein have we polluted thee? In that ye say, The table of the Lord is contemptible.
Cross-references
- Malachi 1:12 “But you profane it when you say, ‘The table of the Lord is defiled, and as for its fruit, its food is contemptible.’
- 1 Corinthians 10:21 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot partake in the table of the Lord and the table of demons too.
- 1 Corinthians 11:27 Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord.
- Malachi 1:8 When you offer blind animals for sacrifice, is it not wrong? And when you present the lame and sick ones, is it not wrong? Try offering them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you or show you favor?” asks the LORD of Hosts.
- 1 Samuel 2:15 Even before the fat was burned, the servant of the priest would come and say to the man who was sacrificing, “Give the priest some meat to roast, because he will not accept boiled meat from you, but only raw.”
- Leviticus 2:11 No grain offering that you present to the LORD may be made with leaven, for you are not to burn any leaven or honey as a food offering to the LORD.
- Leviticus 21:6 They must be holy to their God and not profane the name of their God. Because they present to the LORD the food offerings, the food of their God, they must be holy.
- Deuteronomy 15:21 But if an animal has a defect, is lame or blind, or has any serious flaw, you must not sacrifice it to the LORD your God.
- Ezekiel 41:22 There was an altar of wood three cubits high and two cubits square. Its corners, base, and sides were of wood. And the man told me, “This is the table that is before the LORD.”
- 1 Corinthians 11:21 For as you eat, each of you goes ahead without sharing his meal. While one remains hungry, another gets drunk.