Ye offer polluted bread upon mine altar; and ye say, Wherein have we polluted thee? In that ye say, The table of the LORD is contemptible.
Ye offered polluted bread upon mine altar - God's answer to their challenge (Malachi 1:6), "Wherein have we despised thy name?"
Polluted bread - namely, blemished sacrifices, expressly forbidden by the law (Malachi 1:8; Malachi 1:13-14; Deuteronomy 15:21). So "the bread of thy God" is used for "sacrifices to God" (Leviticus 21:8).
And ye say, Wherein have we polluted thee? - i:e., offered to thee "polluted bread."
In that ye say, The table of the Lord - i:e., the altar (Ezekiel 41:22) (not the table shewbread). Just as the sacrificial flesh is called "bread."
Is contemptible - (Malachi 1:12-13). Ye sanction the niggardly and blemished offerings the people on the altar, to gain favour with them. Darius, and probably has successors, had liberally supplied them with victims for sacrifice, yet they presented none but the worst. A cheap religion, costing little, is rejected by God, and so is worth nothing. It costs more than it is worth, because it is worth nothing, and so proves really dear. God despises not the widow's mite, but he does despise the miser's mite (Moore).