Malachi 2 Footnotes

2:10-16 What Malachi taught about divorce must be understood in its historical context. The challenge facing the Judean community after the return from exile was the reestablishment of its religious institutions (see note on Hg 1:5-8). But Judean men were marrying women from other ethnic groups in the region who worshiped pagan gods (Mal 2:11-12)—in some cases, at least, divorcing their Judean wives (“the wife of your youth,” v. 14) to do so. Marriage to unbelievers diluted their commitment to the faith of Israel and resulted in children who were not the “godly offspring” the Lord desired (v. 15). The prophet’s overriding concern was not marriage, as such, but the effect of an unwise mixed marriage on a man’s relationship to the Lord and the impact of many such unions on the solidarity and stability of the covenant community.

Malachi admonished the men of Judah to honor the commitment they had made to the wife they married under the Lord’s covenant and not to “act treacherously” (v. 16) against her. To divorce her to marry a pagan woman would be to break faith with the Lord, as well as with her. The Lord finds such an action detestable. Malachi appealed not only to the covenant but also to the Lord’s creation of man and woman with “a portion of spirit” (v. 15) to become one flesh (Gn 2:7,21-23). As Creator, God is the Father of his people and desires covenantal loyalty within his family (Mal 2:10). (Apparently polygamy was not an option in Judah at this time, although earlier figures in OT history such as the Hebrew patriarchs, David, and Solomon had more than one wife. Either monogamous marriage had become the norm or, under the rigorous conditions of the earlier return from exile, men of ordinary means could not afford to practice polygamy.)