Malachi 1:7 (DRB)

Passage

To you, O priests, that despise my name, and have said: Wherein have we despised thy name? You offer polluted bread upon my altar, and you say: Wherein have we polluted thee? In that you say: The table of the Lord is contemptible.

Nearby Context

Malachi 1:5 And your eyes shall see: and you shall say: The Lord be magnified upon the border of Israel.

Malachi 1:6 The son honoureth the father, and the servant his master: if then I be a father, where is my honour? and if I be a master, where is my fear: saith the Lord of hosts.

Malachi 1:7 To you, O priests, that despise my name, and have said: Wherein have we despised thy name? You offer polluted bread upon my altar, and you say: Wherein have we polluted thee? In that you say: The table of the Lord is contemptible.

Malachi 1:8 If you offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? and if you offer the lame and the sick, is it not evil? offer it to thy prince, if he will be pleased with it, or if he will regard thy face, saith the Lord of hosts.

Malachi 1:9 And now beseech ye the face of God, that he may have mercy on you, (for by your hand hath this been done,) if by any means he will receive your faces, saith the Lord of hosts.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "priests", "despise", "name", "said", "wherein", "despised", and "offer". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "priests" and "despise", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 6's "The son honoureth the father and the..." into verse 8's "If you offer the blind for sacrifice...", so "priests" and "despise" belong inside that flow. In Malachi context, the local focus is covenant faithfulness, priestly corruption, divine justice, and the coming day of the LORD.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "priests" and "despise" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.