Ezekiel 23:41

23:41 You sat on a magnificent couch, with a table arranged in front of it where you placed my incense and my olive oil.

Ezekiel 44:16

44:16 They will enter my sanctuary, and approach my table to minister to me; they will keep my charge.

Exodus 25:28-30

25:28 You are to make the poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold, so that the table may be carried with them. ¹  25:29 You are to make its plates, ²  its ladles, ³  its pitchers, and its bowls, to be used in pouring out offerings; ⁴  you are to make them of pure gold. 25:30 You are to set the Bread of the Presence ⁵  on the table before me continually.

Leviticus 24:6

24:6 and you must set them in two rows, six in a row, ⁶  on the ceremonially pure table before the Lord.

Proverbs 9:2

9:2 She has prepared her meat, ⁷  she has mixed her wine;

she also has arranged her table. ⁸ 

The Song of Songs 1:12

The Beloved about Her Lover:

1:12 While the king was at his banqueting table, ⁹ 

my nard ¹⁰  gave forth its fragrance. ¹¹ 

Malachi 1:7

1:7 You are offering improper sacrifices on my altar, yet you ask, ‘How have we offended you?’ By treating the table ¹²  of the Lord as if it is of no importance!

Malachi 1:12

1:12 “But you are profaning it by saying that the table of the Lord is common and its offerings ¹³  despicable.

Malachi 1:1

Introduction and God’s Election of Israel

1:1 What follows is divine revelation. ¹⁴  The word of the Lord came to Israel through Malachi: ¹⁵ 

Colossians 1:21

Paul’s Goal in Ministry

1:21 And you were at one time strangers and enemies in your ¹⁶  minds ¹⁷  as expressed through ¹⁸  your evil deeds,

Revelation 3:20

3:20 Listen! ¹⁹  I am standing at the door and knocking! If anyone hears my voice and opens the door I will come into his home ²⁰  and share a meal with him, and he with me.

[25:28]  ¹ tn The verb is a Niphal perfect with vav consecutive, showing here the intended result: “so that [the table] might be lifted up [by them].” The noun “the table” is introduced by what looks like the sign of the accusative, but here it serves to introduce or emphasize the nominative (see GKC 365 §117.i).

[25:29]  ² tn Or “a deep gold dish.” The four nouns in this list are items associated with the table and its use.

[25:29]  ³ tn Or “cups” (NAB, TEV).

[25:29]  ⁴ tn The expression “for pouring out offerings” represents Hebrew אֲשֶׁר יֻסַּךְ בָּהֵן (’asher yussakh bahen). This literally says, “which it may be poured out with them,” or “with which [libations] may be poured out.”

[25:30]  ⁵ sn The name basically means that the bread is to be set out in the presence of Yahweh. The custom of presenting bread on a table as a thank offering is common in other cultures as well. The bread here would be placed on the table as a symbol of the divine provision for the twelve tribes – continually, because they were to express their thanksgiving continually. Priests could eat the bread after certain times. Fresh bread would be put there regularly.

[24:6]  ⁶ tn Heb “six of the row.”

[9:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “she has killed her killing.” Cf. KJV “hath killed her beasts”; NAB “has dressed her meat”; NASB “has prepared her food.”

[9:2]  ⁸ sn Wisdom has prepared a sumptuous banquet in this house and sends out her maids to call the simple to come and eat (M. Lichtenstein, “The Banquet Motif in Keret and in Proverbs 9,” JANESCU 1 [1968/69]: 19-31). The figures of meat and wine represent the good teaching of wisdom that will be palatable and profitable (implied comparisons). Compare Isaiah 55:1-2 and John 6:51, 55 for similar uses of the figures. The idea of mixing wine could refer to the practice of mixing wine with spices or with water (as the LXX text assumes; e.g., Prov 23:30; Isa 5:22). Mixed wine was the most intoxicating; thus, her wisdom is attractive. All the imagery lets the simple know that what wisdom has to offer is marvelous.

[1:12]  ⁹ tn The lexicons suggest that מֵסַב (mesav) refers to a round banquet table (HALOT 604 s.v. מֵסַב) or divan with cushions (BDB 687 s.v. מֵסַב 2). In Mishnaic Hebrew the noun מֵסַב refers to a dining couch, banquet table, as well as cushions or pillows (HALOT 604). The related noun מְסִבָּה (mÿsibbah) refers to a banqueting party (HALOT 604 s.v. מְסִבָּה; Jastrow 803 s.v. מְסִבָּה). The versions took it as a reference to a resting place (see LXX, Vulgate, Syriac Peshitta). R. E. Murphy (Song of Songs [Hermeneia], 131) suggests that it refers to (1) a couch or divan on which a person declined while eating, (2) a group of people gathered in a circle, that is, an entourage, or (3) a private place such as an enclosure.

[1:12]  ¹⁰ sn “Nard” (נֵרְדְּ, nerdÿ) was an aromatic oil extracted from the Valerian nardostachys jatamansi which was an aromatic drug from a plant which grew in the Himalaya region of India, used for perfume (HALOT 723 s.v. נֵרְדְּ). Nard was an expensive imported perfume, worn by women at banquets because of its seductive charms. It was used in the ANE as a love potion because of its erotic fragrance (R. K. Harrison, Healing Herbs of the Bible, 48-49).

[1:12]  ¹¹ tn Or “The fragrance of my myrrh wafted forth.”

[1:7]  ¹² sn The word table, here a synonym for “altar,” has overtones of covenant imagery in which a feast shared by the covenant partners was an important element (see Exod 24:11). It also draws attention to the analogy of sitting down at a common meal with the governor (v. 8).

[1:12]  ¹³ tn Heb “fruit.” The following word “food” in the Hebrew text (אָכְלוֹ, ’okhlo) appears to be an explanatory gloss to clarify the meaning of the rare word נִיב (niv, “fruit”; see Isa 57:19 Qere; נוֹב, nov, “fruit,” in Kethib). Cf. ASV “the fruit thereof, even its food.” In this cultic context the reference is to the offerings on the altar.

[1:1]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “The burden.” The Hebrew term III מַשָּׂא (massa’), usually translated “oracle” or “utterance” (BDB 672 s.v. מַשָּׂא), is a technical term in prophetic literature introducing a message from the Lord (see Zech 9:1; 12:1). Since it derives from a verb meaning “to carry,” its original nuance was that of a burdensome message, that is, one with ominous content. The grammatical structure here suggests that the term stands alone (so NAB, NRSV) and is not to be joined with what follows, “the burden [or “revelation”] of” (so KJV, NASB, ESV).

[1:1]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “The word of the Lord to Israel by the hand of Malachi.” There is some question as to whether מַלְאָכִי (mal’akhi) should be understood as a personal name (so almost all English versions) or as simply “my messenger” (the literal meaning of the Hebrew). Despite the fact that the word should be understood in the latter sense in 3:1 (where, however, it refers to a different person), to understand it that way here would result in the book being of anonymous authorship, a situation anomalous among all the prophetic literature of the OT.

[1:21]  ¹⁶ tn The article τῇ (th) has been translated as a possessive pronoun (ExSyn 215).

[1:21]  ¹⁷ tn Although διανοία (dianoia) is singular in Greek, the previous plural noun ἐχθρούς (ecqrous) indicates that all those from Colossae are in view here.

[1:21]  ¹⁸ tn The dative ἐν τοῖς ἔργοις τοῖς πονηροῖς (en toi" ergoi" toi" ponhroi") is taken as means, indicating the avenue through which hostility in the mind is revealed and made known.

[3:20]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “Behold.”

[3:20]  ²⁰ tn Grk “come in to him.”