Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Malachi · About this commentary
My Name Great Among the Nations
Malachi 1:11-14
11 For from the rising of the sun even to its going down, my name is great among the nations, and in every place incense will be offered to my name, and a pure offering; for my name is great among the nations,” says Yahweh of Armies. · WEB
Twice in one paragraph God says his name is great among the nations — spoken to a small province that had stopped believing it was worth anything.
From the rising of the sun to its going down, my name is great among the nations. The claim is made twice in a single verse, and it is made to people who had reduced their worship because their God seemed to have shrunk with their borders.
The contrast in verse 12 is with those who profane it by calling the Lord's table contemptible. And verse 13 catches the tone rather than the act: what a weariness, they say, and sniff at it. The offense is not disbelief but boredom, which the book treats as a graver thing.
Verse 14 closes on a specific fraud. The man who has a sound male in his flock and vows it, then sacrifices a defective one, is cursed as a deceiver — the sin is not poverty but substitution, promising one thing and delivering another. The reason given is a title: I am a great King. A province with no king of its own is reminded whose subjects they had remained the whole time.
settled What this mark means