Breaking Covenant Through Divorce

10 Do we not all have one Father[a]?(A) Did not one God create us?(B) Why do we profane the covenant(C) of our ancestors by being unfaithful(D) to one another?

11 Judah has been unfaithful. A detestable(E) thing has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem: Judah has desecrated the sanctuary the Lord loves(F) by marrying(G) women who worship a foreign god.(H) 12 As for the man who does this, whoever he may be, may the Lord remove(I) him from the tents of Jacob[b](J)—even though he brings an offering(K) to the Lord Almighty.

13 Another thing you do: You flood the Lord’s altar with tears.(L) You weep and wail(M) because he no longer looks with favor(N) on your offerings or accepts them with pleasure from your hands.(O) 14 You ask,(P) “Why?” It is because the Lord is the witness(Q) between you and the wife of your youth.(R) You have been unfaithful to her, though she is your partner, the wife of your marriage covenant.(S)

15 Has not the one God made you?(T) You belong to him in body and spirit. And what does the one God seek? Godly offspring.[c](U) So be on your guard,(V) and do not be unfaithful(W) to the wife of your youth.

16 “The man who hates and divorces his wife,(X)” says the Lord, the God of Israel, “does violence to the one he should protect,”[d](Y) says the Lord Almighty.

So be on your guard,(Z) and do not be unfaithful.

Breaking Covenant Through Injustice

17 You have wearied(AA) the Lord with your words.

“How have we wearied him?” you ask.(AB)

By saying, “All who do evil are good in the eyes of the Lord, and he is pleased(AC) with them” or “Where is the God of justice?(AD)

“I will send my messenger,(AE) who will prepare the way before me.(AF) Then suddenly the Lord(AG) you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant,(AH) whom you desire,(AI) will come,” says the Lord Almighty.

But who can endure(AJ) the day of his coming?(AK) Who can stand(AL) when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire(AM) or a launderer’s soap.(AN) He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver;(AO) he will purify(AP) the Levites and refine them like gold and silver.(AQ) Then the Lord will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness,(AR) and the offerings(AS) of Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable to the Lord, as in days gone by, as in former years.(AT)

“So I will come to put you on trial. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers,(AU) adulterers(AV) and perjurers,(AW) against those who defraud laborers of their wages,(AX) who oppress the widows(AY) and the fatherless, and deprive the foreigners(AZ) among you of justice, but do not fear(BA) me,” says the Lord Almighty.

Breaking Covenant by Withholding Tithes

“I the Lord do not change.(BB) So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed.(BC)

Footnotes

  1. Malachi 2:10 Or father
  2. Malachi 2:12 Or 12 May the Lord remove from the tents of Jacob anyone who gives testimony in behalf of the man who does this
  3. Malachi 2:15 The meaning of the Hebrew for the first part of this verse is uncertain.
  4. Malachi 2:16 Or “I hate divorce,” says the Lord, the God of Israel, “because the man who divorces his wife covers his garment with violence,”

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