Charles Ellicott Commentary Malachi 1:13

"Ye say also, Behold, what a weariness is it! and ye have snuffed at it, saith Jehovah of hosts; and ye have brought that which was taken by violence, and the lame, and the sick; thus ye bring the offering: should I accept this at your hand? saith Jehovah." — Malachi 1:13 (ASV)

Said. —Better, say.

And you have snuffed at it. —Better, and you puff at it—that is, treat it with contempt, “pooh-pooh it,” as we say. The service of the Temple, which they ought to have regarded as their highest privilege and pleasure, they look on as burdensome and contemptible. For “brought,” read bring.

Torn. —The word Gâzûl elsewhere means “stolen” (Deuteronomy 28:31), or “robbed”—that is, “spoiled” (Deuteronomy 28:29). It is perhaps not impossible that it may here be a later word for trêphâh, “torn” (compare the cognate Arabic ajzal, “galled on the back”), but it is not so used in post-Biblical Jewish writings.

On the contrary, Rabbinic tradition uses our word when expressly mentioning that which is stolen as unfit to be offered as a burnt offering—for example, the Sifrâ (Vayyikrâ, Perek 6, Parashta 5, ed. Weis 7b), commenting on the words of Leviticus 1:10, says: “‘From the flock,’ and ‘from the sheep,’ and ‘from the goats:’ These words are limitations—namely, to exclude the sick , and the aged, and that which has been dedicated in thought to an idol, and that which is defiled with its own filth; ‘its offering’ [English Version, his offering, compare Note on Zechariah 4:2], to exclude that which is stolen.” (See also Talmud Babli, Baba Kamma 66b.)

The English Version has the same in view in its rendering of Isaiah 61:8, where it has the authority of Talmud Babli, Sukkah 30a, and of Jerome and Luther.

Perhaps the reason people were inclined to offer a stolen animal is that it might very likely have a mark on it, which would render it impossible for the thief to offer it for sale and so realize money on it, for fear of detection. So then, he makes a virtue of a necessity and brings as an offering to God that which he could not otherwise dispose of.