Ver. 6. A son honoureth hisfather, and a servanthis
master, &c.] Or, will honour, or should honour ; it is
their duty to do so, both according to the laws of God
and man; and s5 the Targum, "lo concerning a son
"it is said (or commanded) that. be'should honour hiss
"father; and of a servant, that he should fear (or show
"reverence) before his master;" see Exod. xx. 12.
Ephes. vi. 5: if then I be a Father; as he was the Fa-
ther of his divine and eternal Son; the Father of spirits,
angels, and the souls of men; the Father of all men by.
creation; and the Father of all mercies to them in pro-
vidence, as he was to Israel; and, besides, was their
'Father by national adoption, as he was not to other
people; and to many of them stood in this relation by
special adopting grace: where is mine honour? there
is an honour due to God on account of this relation;
which should be shewn by loving him, trusting in
him, calling upon him, imitating. and obeying him,
and by making use of what he has given for his glory;
he is. to be honoured in heart and life, by words and
actions, and with our substance. This question sug-
gests, that he had not the honour given him, which
belonged unto him: and if I be a master; the word is
in the plural number, and may be nuderstood of Je-
hovah, Father, Son, and Spirit; though the first
Person seems rather designed, who stands in this
relation to Christ, as Mediator; to the angels, his
ministerfag spirits; to the ministers of the Gospel, and
to all the saints; and indeed to all men, and parti-
cularly to the Israelites; as .appeared by the special
laws and commands he enjoined tchem,.and by his
special government, ,prot. e.ction, and care of them:
where is my fear? fear and reverence are due to the
Lord from his people, considered in such a relation to
them; not a slavish fear of wrath and punishment; but
a godly filial fear, which is influenced by the goodness
of God, and appears in a carefulness not to offend him,
and by the pcrfortnance of all religious worship, both
private and public; and in this not only natural men,
but professors of religion, and even God's own people,
are wanting; yea, those th:at should set examples to
others, as men in public office, and of a public cha-
racter, as follows: saith the Lord of hosts unto you, 0
priests, that despise my name; for what is' before said
is not only said to the people in general; but to the
priests in particular, who ought to have honoured and
feared the Lord; and yet they despised his name, or
made it contemptible; by not paying that regard tO his
authority, as a lather and master, they 6ught; by ne-
glecting his worship, and not taking that care of offer-
ings and sacrifices as became them: and ye say, wherein
have we despised thy name ? as if they were entirely in-
nocent and guiltless.
Ver. 7- Ye offer polluted bread upon mine altar, &c.]
Which some .understand of the shew-bread, mention
being afterwards made of a table, as Jerom; who ob-
serves that it was made of wheat, which the priests
themselves sowed, reaped, ground, and baked, and so
could take what they would out of it: as for their
sowing it, it does not seem likely that they should be
employed in such 'service, whatever may be said for
their reaping; since the sheaf of the first-fruits was
reaped by persons deputed from the sanhedrim {w};
though of the reaping of that for the shew-bread, I
find no mention made; butas tbr grinding, siftin.g,
kneading, a. nd making it into loaves, and baking it,
and taking it out of the oven, and putting it upon the
table of shew-bread, all this was ,the work of the
priests {x}; and those of the house ofGarmu {y} were ap-
pointed over that, work: now, this bread might be said
to be polluted, when they set upon the table such as
was not made of line wheat-flour, and hSd not pure
frar/kincense pat upon or by each,row, as the law re-
quired, Lev. xxiv. 5, 7. nor is it any material objection
to this sense, that it is an altar, and not a table, on
which this bread was offered; since, as the altar is
called a table, Ezek. xli. 22., as this is in a following
clause, the table maybe called an altar; though it
may be observed, that the shew-bread is never said to
be offered, but to be set, or put upon the table: in-
deed the burning of the frankincense set by it is called
an offering made by fire unto the Lord, Lev. xxiv. 7.
wherefor.e others interpret this of the daily meat-of-
fering, which went along with the daily sacrifice of the
lambs, and part of which was burnt on the altar,
Exod. xxix. 40, 41, 4.o. or rather this designs sacrifice
in general, sometimes called bread, Lev. iii. 11, 16.
and xxi. 6. and so the Targum here, "ye offer upon
"my altar an abominable offering ;" such as had ble-
mishes in them, were blind or lame, as after men-
tioned; and had not the requisites of a sacrifice in them;
or were offered not in a right manner, or by bad men,
and with a wicked mind: and ye say, wherein hare we
polluted thee ? thy bread-offering or altar; as if their
offerings were pure, and they themselves, and their
consciences pure from sin. The answer is, in that ye
say, the table of the Lord is contemptible; either the
shew-bread table, which yet was covered with gold,
and all the vessels of it made of gold; or the altar, as
in Ezck. xli. 22.. their actions spoke so loud, .and de-
clared that the ruble or altar of the Lord was a con-
temptible thing, since they .cared not what was of-
-feted upon it: or the reason why it was had in contempt,
as SOme think, was because there was not that holiness
in the second temple as in the first: or, as Abarbinel
and Kimchi say, because of the fat and the blood which
were offered on the altar, which they esteemed con-
temptible things; not observing the end for which the
Lord commanded them to be offered.
Ver. 8. And if ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not
evil? &c.] Certainly it is, according to the 'law in
Lev. xxii. 22. or, as Kimchi interprets it, when they
bring to you a lamb that is blind-for sacrifice to Offer it
up, ye say, this is not evil; but it is good to offer it up,
because the table is contemptible. The sefise is, that,
ho,wever evil this may be in itself, according to them
it .was good enough to be offered up upon the altar
Which proves that they despised the name of the Lord,
offered polluted bread or sacrifice on his altar, and had
his table in contempt: and if ye offer the lame and sick,
is it not evil? verily it. is, by the law of God, which
forbids the offering ofsuc.h things, Lev. xxii. 2l,


{w} Misn. Menachot, c. 10. sect. 3.
{x} Maimon. Hilchot Tamidin, c. 5. sect. 6.
{y} Misn. Shekalim, c. 5. sect. 1.