Malachi 1:10 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Malachi 1:10
Who is there even among you that would shut the doors for nought? neither do ye kindle fire on mine altar for nought. I have no pleasure in you, saith the LORD of hosts, neither will I accept an offering at your hand.
to shut up · conjunction + verb, qal, 3rd person masculine singular
doors
דְּלָתַ֔יִםde.la.Ta.yim
H1817
something swinging · noun, common feminine dual absolute
kindle
תָאִ֥ירוּta.'I.ru
H215
to be (causative · verb, hiphil imperfect, 2nd person masculine plural
altar
מִזְבְּחִ֖יmiz.be.Chi
H4196
an altar · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix
nought
חִנָּ֑םchi.Nam
H2600
gratis · adverb
pleasure
חֵ֜פֶץChe.fetz
H2656
pleasure · noun, common masculine singular absolute
saith
אָמַר֙'a.Mar
H559
to say (used with great latitude) · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
LORD
יְהוָ֣הYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
hosts
צְבָא֔וֹתtze.va.'ot
H6635
a mass of persons (or figuratively · noun, common feminine plural absolute
accept
אֶרְצֶ֥ה'er.Tzeh
H7521
to be pleased with · verb, qal imperfect, 1st person common singular
offering
וּמִנְחָ֖הu.min.Chah
H4503
a donation · conjunction + noun, common feminine singular absolute
hand
מִיֶּדְכֶֽםmi.yed.Khem
H3027
a hand (the open one (indicating power · preposition + noun, common both genders singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine plural
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
1 Peter 5:2 Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a rea…
Jeremiah 6:20 To what purpose cometh there to me incense from Sheba, and the sweet cane from a far country? your burnt offerings are not acceptable, nor y…
Hosea 5:6 They shall go with their flocks and with their herds to seek the LORD; but they shall not find him; he hath withdrawn himself from them.
Amos 5:21-24 I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies.
Micah 3:11 The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will they lean up…
Isaiah 1:11-15 To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed be…
Jeremiah 8:10 Therefore will I give their wives unto others, and their fields to them that shall inherit them: for every one from the least even unto the…
Jeremiah 14:12 When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and an oblation, I will not accept them: but I will consume th…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Malachi 1:6–end
The prophet is here, by a special commission, calling the priests to account, though they were themselves appointed judges, to call the people to an account. Let the rulers in the house of God know that there is one above them, who will reckon with them for their mal-administrations. Thus saith the Lord of hosts to you, O priests! Mal 1:6. God will have a saying to unfaithful ministers; and it concerns those who speak from God to his people to hear and heed what he says to them, that they may save themselves in the first place, otherwise how should they help to save those that hear them? It is a severe, and no doubt a just reproof, that is here given to the priests, for the profanation of th…
Who . . . for naught--Not one even of the least priestly functions (as shutting the doors, or kindling a fire on the altar) would ye exercise without pay, therefore ye ought to fulfil them faithfully (Co1 9:13). DRUSIUS and MAURER translate, "Would that there were absolutely some one of you who would shut the doors of the temple (that is, of the inner court, in which was the altar of burnt offerings), and that ye would not kindle fire on My altar in vain!" Better no sacrifices than vain ones (Isa 1:11-15). It was the duty of some of the priests to stand at the doors of the court of the altar of burnt offerings, and to have excluded blemished victims [CALVIN].
John Gill on Malachi 1:10
Who is there even among you that would shut the doors for nought?.... Either of the temple, as the Targum and Jarchi; for at each of the gates of the temple there were porters appointed in David's time, 1 Chronicles 26:1 and who were paid for their service: or of the court, as Kimchi; the court of the priests where the offerings were brought. The words "for nought" are not, in the original text, at the end of this clause, but at the end of the next; and are by some referred to both; and by others restrained to the latter; and who give this as the sense of the words, "who is there", or "would there were any among you?" (f) any good man that would shut the doors of the temple, that so a man mi…
After their captivity in Babylon the Jews did rebuild their temple and restored the place where they were allowed to observe all the rituals according to the law. But now the power of Christ, the power that founded the church, has also destroyed their restored temple. And their prophets foretold this and showed that God would reject Judaism and introduce a new way of worship.
The Jews did return from Babylon, they did recover the city, they did rebuild the temple, and they did offer sacrifices. But it was only after all this that Malachi predicted the coming of the present desolation and the abolition of Jewish sacrifices. This is what he said speaking in God's behalf: " 'Shall I for your sakes accept your persons?' says the Lord God almighty. 'For from the rising of the sun, even to its setting, my name is glorified among the nations; and everywhere they bring incense to my name, and a pure offering. But you have profaned it.' "
Scripture did not pass over in silence the rejection of the Jews. Notice how the prophet Malachi foretold this too. "Behold, among you the doors will be shut, and fire will not be kindled on my altar for anything." He also foretold who would now pay God worship. "From the rising of the sun to its going down, my name has been glorified among the nations." And again he said, "And in every place incense is offered to me and a pure sacrifice." Do you see how he made clear the nobility of worship? How he showed that the new worship had a special honor and differed from the old? Worship will not be confined to a place or a way of sacrifice, nor will it consist in savor or smoke or omens; it will be a different ritual.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Malachi — Messenger or angel, the last of the minor prophets, and the writer of the last book of the Old Testament canon (Mal. 4:4, 5, 6). Nothing is known of him beyond what is contained in his book of…
Formalism · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Hypocrisy · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Offerings · The Jews often: Rejected in, because of sin — The Jews often: Rejected in, because of sin
Selfishness · God hates — God hates
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
John Calvin on Malachi 1:10
Malachi 1:10
10. Who is there even among you that would shut the doors for nought? neither do ye kindle fire on mine altar for nought. I have no pleasure in you, saith the LORD of hosts, neither will I accept an offering at your hand.
10. Quis etiam in vobis qui claudat ostia, et non incenditis altare meum gratis? non mihi placet in vobis, dicit Iehova exercituum; et oblationem non habebo gratam e manu vestra.
He goes on with the same subject, -- that the priests conducted themselves very shamefully in their office, and that the people had become hardened through their example, so that the whole of religion was disregarded. Hence he says, that the doors were not closed by them. Some inter…
Mal 1:10. "O that there were one among you, who would shut the doors, that ye might not light mine altar to no purpose! I have no pleasure in you, saith Jehovah of hosts, and sacrificial offering does not please me from your hand. Mal 1:11. For from the rising of the sun to the setting thereof my name is great among the nations, and in every place incense is burned and sacrifice offered, and indeed a pure sacrifice to my name; for my name is great among the nations, saith Jehovah of hosts. Mal 1:12. And ye desecrate it with your saying: the table of Jehovah, it is defiled, and its fruit - contemptible is its food. Mal 1:13. And ye say: behold what a plague! and ye blow upon it, saith Jehovah…
The governor was Persia’s appointed overseer of the province of Judah. The juxtaposition of my altar (1:7) and your governor (1:8) reveals a confusion of loyalties among the Levitical priests. • says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies: This phrase is known as the messenger formula in prophetic speech and signifies that God’s authority stands behind the prophet’s message.
