^1:6“A son naturally honors his father and a slave respects¹¹ his master. If I am your¹² father, where is my honor? If I am your master, where is my respect? The Lord who rules over all asks you this, you priests who make light of my name! But you reply, ‘How have we made light of your name?’ ^1:7You are offering improper sacrifices on my altar, yet you ask, ‘How have we offended you?’ By treating the table¹³ of the Lord as if it is of no importance! ^1:8For when you offer blind animals as a sacrifice, is that not wrong? And when you offer the lame and sick,¹⁴ is that not wrong as well? Indeed, try offering them¹⁵ to your governor! Will he be pleased with you¹⁶ or show you favor?” asks the Lord who rules over all. ^1:9But now plead for God’s favor¹⁷ that he might be gracious to us.¹⁸ “With this kind of offering in your hands, how can he be pleased with you?” asks the Lord who rules over all.

^1:10“I wish that one of you would close the temple doors,¹⁹ so that you no longer would light useless fires on my altar. I am not pleased with you,” says the Lord who rules over all, “and I will no longer accept an offering from you. ^1:11For from the east to the west my name will be great among the nations. Incense and pure offerings will be offered in my name everywhere, for my name will be great among the nations,”²⁰ says the Lord who rules over all.

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Footnotes

11 The verb “respects” is not in the Hebrew text but is supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons. It is understood by ellipsis (see “honors” in the preceding line).
12 The pronoun “your” is supplied in the translation for clarification (also a second time before “master” later in this verse).
13 The word table, here a synonym for “altar,” has overtones of covenant imagery in which a feast shared by the covenant partners was an important element (see Exod 24:11). It also draws attention to the analogy of sitting down at a common meal with the governor (v. 8).
14 Offerings of animals that were lame or sick were strictly forbidden by the Mosaic law (see Deut 15:21).
15 Heb “it” (so , ). Contemporary English more naturally uses a plural pronoun to agree with “the lame and sick” in the previous question (cf. , ).
16 The and read “with it” (which in Hebrew would be הֲיִרְצֵהוּ, hayirtsehu, a reading followed by ) rather than “with you” of the (הֲיִרְצְךָ, hayirtsékha). The (followed here by most English versions) is to be preferred because of the parallel with the following phrase פָנֶיךָ (fanekha, “receive you,” which the present translation renders as “show you favor”).
17 Heb “seek the face of God.”
18 After the imperative, the prefixed verbal form with vav conjunction indicates purpose (cf. , ).
19 The rhetorical language suggests that as long as the priesthood and people remain disobedient, the temple doors may as well be closed because God is not “at home” to receive them or their worship there.
20 My name will be great among the nations. In what is clearly a strongly ironic shift of thought, the Lord contrasts the unbelief and virtual paganism of the postexilic community with the conversion and obedience of the nations that will one day worship the God of Israel.