My Name Great Among the Nations
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. 12 “But you profane it when you say, ‘Yahweh’s table is polluted, and its fruit, even its food, is contemptible.’ 13 You say also, ‘Behold, what a weariness it is!’ And you have sniffed at it”, says Yahweh of Armies; “and you have brought that which was taken by violence, the lame, and the sick; thus you bring the offering. Should I accept this at your hand?” says Yahweh. 14 “But the deceiver is cursed who has in his flock a male, and vows and sacrifices to the Lord a defective thing; for I am a great King,” says Yahweh of Armies, “and my name is awesome among the nations.”
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