(Mal. 2:13-16 NIV) Another thing you do: You flood the LORD’s altar with tears. You weep and wail because he no longer pays attention to your offerings or accepts them with pleasure from your hands. 14 You ask, “Why?” It is because the LORD is acting as the witness between you and the wife of your youth, because you have broken faith with her, though she is your partner, the wife of your marriage covenant. 15 Has not the LORD made them one? In flesh and spirit they are his. And why one? Because he was seeking godly offspring. So guard yourself in your spirit, and do not break faith with the wife of your youth. 16 “I hate divorce,” says the LORD God of Israel, “and I hate a man’s covering himself with violence as well as with his garment,” says the LORD Almighty. “So guard yourself in your spirit, and do not break faith.”
“Has not the LORD made them one? In flesh and spirit they are his.” The term “one” (ʾeḥāḏ) is the same word used in Genesis 2:24 to refer to the man and woman becoming “one flesh.” In other words, divorce rips apart what God has created (cf. Mt. 19:6). This could be why Malachi compares divorce to covering oneself with violence.[1]
“The wife of your youth…” This suggests that “the men were divorcing their aging wives in favor of younger women.”[2]
“I hate divorce…” The Hebrew literally states, “He hates divorce.”[3] Regardless of how we translate this verse, it is clear that “God is against the person who breaks one’s marriage vows.”[4]
“Guard yourself in
your spirit, and do not break faith.” Divorce harms the person who is
divorcing their spouse.[5]
[1] Baldwin, J. G. (1972). Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi: An Introduction and Commentary (Vol. 28, p. 262). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
[2] Alden, R. L. (1986). Malachi. In F. E. Gaebelein (Ed.), The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Daniel and the Minor Prophets (Vol. 7, p. 717). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.
[3] David Instone-Brewer, Divorce and Remarriage in the Bible: The Social and Literary Context (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2002), 56.
[4] David Instone-Brewer, Divorce and Remarriage in the Bible: The Social and Literary Context (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2002), 57.
[5] Baldwin, J. G. (1972). Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi: An Introduction and Commentary (Vol. 28, p. 262). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.