⁵⁹ “Now this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will give you what you deserve, for you have taken your solemn vows lightly by breaking your covenant. ⁶⁰ Yet I will remember the covenant I made with you when you were young, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you.

⁸ And when I passed by again, I saw that you were old enough for love. So I wrapped my cloak around you to cover your nakedness and declared my marriage vows. I made a covenant with you, says the Sovereign Lord, and you became mine.

¹⁴ You cry out, “Why doesn’t the Lord accept my worship?” I’ll tell you why! Because the Lord witnessed the vows you and your wife made when you were young. But you have been unfaithful to her, though she remained your faithful partner, the wife of your marriage vows.

¹⁵ Didn’t the Lord make you one with your wife? In body and spirit you are his.^[a] And what does he want? Godly children from your union. So guard your heart; remain loyal to the wife of your youth. ¹⁶ “For I hate divorce!”^[b] says the Lord, the God of Israel. “To divorce your wife is to overwhelm her with cruelty,^[c]” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. “So guard your heart; do not be unfaithful to your wife.”