1:7a
This verse is the answer to the question in 1:6g. Good News Translation begins this verse with the phrase “This is how,” to make this connection explicit. It may be necessary in your language to do something similar.
By presenting: In Hebrew this literally is “you are bringing.” When used with “upon my altar,” this is the normal expression for bringing sacrifices to the LORD.
defiled food: The Hebrew word which the Berean Standard Bible translates as defiled can also be translated as “polluted.” Although Good News Translation uses the word “worthless,” the meaning here is not that the sacrifices had little value. Instead, it means that the sacrifices were “ritually unclean,” “unholy,” and therefore unfit to be used as a sacrifice to the LORD. In the laws which the LORD had given to Moses many years previously, he said that animals offered for sacrifice must be perfect. See Exodus 12:5; Leviticus 1:3, 1:10, 22:18–25; Deuteronomy 15:21.
food: This is the general word in Hebrew for “bread,” “food” or “grain,” but here it refers to animal sacrifices, as 1:8 makes clear.
on My altar: The altar is the place where the priest burned the sacrifice. The altar was a large structure, shaped like a box, made of bronze. It stood in the temple outside the Holy Place.
1:7b
How have we defiled You?: There is a textual issue with this verse. There are two possibilities:
(1) The Hebrew text reads: “How have we polluted you ?”
(2) The LXX reads, “How have we polluted it ?”
It is recommended that you follow option (1) and the Hebrew text. This again shows that “the name” in 1:6g stands for the LORD himself.
This statement is parallel to “How have we despised Your name?” in 1:6g. This is another rhetorical question. The people again objected to the LORD saying that they had treated him badly. Use the appropriate grammatical form in your language to show this.
defiled: In some languages it may not be natural to speak of “defiling” God. The idea is that they were dishonoring him. They did that by bringing defective offerings. It may be necessary to express the idea in a different way. For example:
How have we failed to respect you? (Good News Translation)
-or-
How have we offended you? (NET Bible)
1:7c
This clause is the answer to the question in 1:7b. In some languages it may be necessary to make this connection more explicit. For example:
You have done it by… (Contemporary English Version)
the table of the LORD: This refers to the altar on which sacrifices were offered to the LORD in the temple. This is a figure of speech which refers to the whole act of offering sacrifices to the LORD.
Notice that the LORD referred to his own altar as the table of the LORD. In some languages this may be confusing. If that is true in your language, you may substitute a first person form like “my.” Good News Translation has “my altar.”
contemptible: The Hebrew word is related to the word translated as “despised” in 1:6. See the note on 1:6f above.
General Comment on 1:6–7
Notice the special structure in 1:6–7. This highlights an important point in the text.
6g But you ask, ‘How have we despised Your name?’
7a By presenting defiled food on My altar.
7b But you ask, ‘How have we defiled You?’
7c By saying that the table of the LORD is contemptible.
The same Hebrew verb bazah “to despise, to treat with contempt” appears in verse parts 1:6g and 1:7c, where the Berean Standard Bible translates it as “contemptible.” The verse parts 1:7a and 1:7b contain the Hebrew verb gaʾal, which means “to pollute, to defile, to make unclean or unholy.”
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