Malachias 1:13
And you have said: Behold of our labour, and you puffed it away, saith the Lord of hosts, and you brought in of rapine the lame, and the sick, and brought in an offering: shall I accept it at your hands, saith the Lord?
The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Et dixistis : Ecce de labore, et exsufflastis illud, dicit Dominus exercituum : et intulistis de rapinis claudum et languidum, et intulistis munus : numquid suscipiam illud de manu vestra ? dicit Dominus.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- καὶ εἴπατε Ταῦτα ἐκ κακοπαθίας ἐστίν. καὶ ἐξεφύσησα αὐτά, λέγει Κύριος Παντοκράτωρ. καὶ εἰσεφέρετε ἁρπάγματα καὶ τὰ χωλὰ καὶ τὰ ἐνοχλούμενα· καὶ ἐὰν φέρητε τὴν θυσίαν, εἰ προσδέξομαι αὐτὰ ἐκ τῶν χειρῶν ὑμῶν; λέγει Κύριος Παντοκράτωρ.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וַאֲמַרְתֶּם֩ הִנֵּ֨ה מַתְּלָאָ֜ה וְהִפַּחְתֶּ֣ם אוֹת֗וֹ אָמַר֙ יְהוָ֣ה צְבָא֔וֹת וַהֲבֵאתֶ֣ם גָּז֗וּל וְאֶת הַפִּסֵּ֨חַ֙ וְאֶת הַ֣חוֹלֶ֔ה וַהֲבֵאתֶ֖ם אֶת הַמִּנְחָ֑ה הַאֶרְצֶ֥ה אוֹתָ֛הּ מִיֶּדְכֶ֖ם אָמַ֥ר יְהוָֽה
Haydock's commentary
Behold of our labour, &c. You pretended labour and weariness, when you brought your offering; and so made it of no value, by offering it with an evil mind. Moreover, what you offered was both defective in itself, and gotten by rapine and extortion. (Challoner)
These were two defects. (Worthington)
Hebrew, "what fatigue, or if we change one letter, and read (Calmet) mothlae, (Haydock) it stinks, and you." &c. Some copies of [the] Septuagint, Arabic, &c., "I blew them away," with disgust.
Rapine. Ecclesiasticus xxxiv. 24.
Offering. Mincha, ver. 11. (Calmet)
Such victims and presents as are lame or strange, are rejected. (Pliny, [Natural History?] viii. 45.)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St Gregory Nazianzen In Defence of His Flight to Pontus, and His Return, After His Ordination to the Priesthood, with an Exposition of the Character of the Priestly Office
61. How can it be right to pass by Malachi, who at one time brings bitter charges against the priests, and reproaches them with despising the name of the Lord, and explains wherein they did this, by offering polluted bread upon the altar, and meat which is not firstfruits, which they would not have offered to one of their governors, or, if they had offered it, they would have been dishonoured; yet offering these in fulfilment of a vow to the King of the universe, to wit, the lame and the sick, and the deformed, which are utterly profane and loathsome. Again he reminds them of the covenant of God, a covenant of life and peace, with the sons of Levi, and that they should serve Him in fear, and stand in awe of the manifestation of His Name. …
The Ecumenical Councils The Canons of the Councils of Ancyra, Gangra, Neocæsarea, Antioch and Laodicea, which Canons were Accepted and Received by the Ecumenical Synods, Canon V
This canon is found in the Corpus Juris Canonici , Gratian’s Decretum , Pars I., Dist. xxx., c. x. The commentators find nothing to say upon the canon, and in fact the despising of the worship of God’s true church is and always has been so common a sin, that it hardly calls for comment; no one will forget that the Prophet Malachi complains how in his days there were those who deemed “the table of the Lord contemptible” and said of his worship “what a weariness is it.” ( Mal. i., 7 and 13 .)