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You will see with your own eyes what I will do to them. Then you will say, “The Lord has great power, even beyond Israel's borders.” ’

The priests do not respect God

The Lord Almighty says this to the priests:

‘A son respects his father. A servant respects his master. If I am really your father and your master, why do you not respect me? You are my priests, but you insult my name.[a]

But then you ask, “What have we done to insult your name?”

You insult my name when you offer unclean sacrifices to me on my altar.

But you ask, “How have we offered unclean sacrifices to you?”

You have shown that you do not respect the Lord's altar as important.[b]

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Footnotes

  1. 1:6 When an Israelite spoke about God's name, he was speaking about God himself. So to insult the name of God was to show no respect for God himself.
  2. 1:7 The Israelites gave gifts as sacrifices to God. God told them in his Law how they should do that. They brought their gifts to the priests, who then made the sacrifices. Malachi says that the people and the priests were trying to cheat God. The gifts that they offered were not good and pure in the way that God said they should be.