Malachi 2:10-16

Israel further repudiates Yahweh's love by the common practice of the divorce of native wives (Malachi 2:10; Malachi 2:13) in order to marry foreign women (Malachi 2:11, cf. Ezra 9 f., Nehemiah 13:23 ff.). Such conduct violates the bond existing between the children of the All-Father, and profanes the covenant by which Yahweh separated Israel to Himself from other peoples. The words in Israel and in Jerusalem are glosses. The treachery is towards Yahweh; strange, i.e. foreign, marriages imply foreign cults, and Yahweh's holiness, or holy thing (i.e. Israel itself) or Yahweh's sanctuary (mg.) is profaned by such sins. May such offenders (the Heb. of Malachi 2:12 has an optative force) be stripped of all friends and supporters; him that waketh (i.e. a watchman or sentry) and him that answereth is a proverbial expression (cf. 1 Kings 21:21) meaning everyone. Or we may with a slight vowel change follow LXX and read, witness and answerer (cf. Job 13:22) may hebe legally outcast. This suits the next clause may he be spiritually outcast, with no one to offer a sacrifice for him. The tears of Malachi 2:13 will be those of the divorced wives, though some authorities instead of insomuch read, because, in which case the tears are those of the people who have been visited by some token of Divine displeasure. They ask Wherefore (Malachi 2:14) does not Yahweh accept our offerings? thy companion, i.e., a fellow-member of thy tribe. thy covenant may mean either the marriage contract or the covenant between Israel and Yahweh.

Malachi 2:15 a is difficult and probably corrupt. We may omit the interpretation which makes the one refer to Abraham. RV means that though God could have made as many men as He liked, He made one only because the godly seed which He sought could only be secured by the union of a single human pair: mg. means that no man who had a particle of the spirit of God (or of reason, moral sense) has ever faithlessly put away his wife. A man who seeks godly children is thereby stayed divorcing his partner. With slight emendations (Wellhausen, Nowack) read, Hath not one God made and preserved to us the spirit (of life)? And what doth the One seek? A seed of God (i.e. children; cf. Psalms 127:3). This means that when our wives bear us children we have fulfilled Yahweh's purpose and our own: we may not discard our wives because they are no longer fresh and fair. The Hebrews married early. to your spirit (Malachi 2:15 b and Malachi 2:16 b) is rather in your mind. that covereth his garment with violence: there seems some allusion here to the primitive custom by which to throw one's garment over a woman was to claim her as a wife (Ezekiel 16:8; Ruth 3:9). The Kor-' an speaks of a wife as a husband's garment and vice versa. The whole passage (Malachi 2:10) is the most outspoken condemnation of divorce in OT; it is intermediate between Deuteronomy 24:1 and the teaching of Jesus (Mark 10:2).