Malachi 2

The Priests Reproved; Judah Deals Treacherously

The Lord warns the priests that He will curse their blessings because they have corrupted the covenant of Levi, then charges the people with treachery against one another and against the wives of their youth. The chapter ends with the people asking where the God of judgment is.

Malachi chaptersChapter 2 of 4

Not dated in the text. About 430 B.C. in the Bible Dictionary; the exact timing is uncertain. Read with footnotes in Gospel Library

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Background

Chapter 2 is the hinge of Malachi. The book falls into two parts: the first (1:1–2:9) “addressed to the priesthood, reproving them for their neglect of service to God,” the second…

Chapter 2 is the hinge of Malachi. The book falls into two parts: the first (1:1–2:9) “addressed to the priesthood, reproving them for their neglect of service to God,” the second (2:10–4:6) “addressed to the people, speaking against marriage outside the covenant, divorces from wives within the covenant, and neglect of tithe paying.” So the chapter finishes the reproof of the priests begun in Mal. 1:6 and then turns to how the people treat one another.

The date of the book is discussed at Mal. 1:1. Malachi “may have been a contemporary of Ezra and Nehemiah,” and their books record marriages like those this chapter condemns. Ezra is told that “the priests, and the Levites, have not separated themselves from the people of the lands” (Ezra 9:1), and Nehemiah found Jews who “had married wives of Ashdod, of Ammon, and of Moab” (Neh. 13:23). Malachi does not say how its charges relate to those events.

Several verses here are read differently by translators (verses 3, 12, 15, and 16), and the notes say so where it matters. The Savior quoted chapters 3 and 4 of Malachi to the Nephites (3 Ne. 24–25); this chapter is not among them.

The thread through the chapter

Malachi 2 is about covenants, and one verb carries the charge. The Hebrew word for “covenant” (berit) occurs six times in the whole book, five of them here: the covenant with Levi…

Malachi 2 is about covenants, and one verb carries the charge. The Hebrew word for “covenant” (berit) occurs six times in the whole book, five of them here: the covenant with Levi (verses 4, 5, 8), “the covenant of our fathers” (verse 10), and “the wife of thy covenant” (verse 14). The verb the KJV renders “deal treacherously” (bagad) occurs five times in Malachi, all in verses 10–16: against a brother, by Judah, against a wife. Three covenants are named, and each is said to be broken: the priests have “corrupted the covenant of Levi,” brother deals treacherously with brother “by profaning the covenant of our fathers,” and a husband deals treacherously with “the wife of thy covenant.”

The order of the chapter is its argument. The priests come first. They were the Lord’s “messenger” (verse 7), the ones who were to teach the people what the covenant required, and they made “many” stumble (verse 8). Then the charge turns to the people, and the same verb of broken faith is used of how they treat one another and their wives. The chapter is also a dialogue, as the whole book is: the people are told their offerings are refused and ask “Wherefore?” (verse 14), and at the end they ask “Where is the God of judgment?” (verse 17). The chapter does not answer that question. Mal. 3:1–5 does: the Lord “whom ye seek” comes “to judgment,” and the purifying it names is of “the sons of Levi” (Mal. 3:3).

Tap any highlighted phrase to open a note beneath its versein the margin.

Verses 1–3

A warning to the priests

In plain words

The Lord says to the priests, “this commandment is for you.” If they will not listen and take it to heart, to give glory to His name, He will send a curse on them and curse their blessings; He says He has already cursed them, because they do not take it to heart. He will rebuke their seed (the KJV has “corrupt”), spread on their faces the dung of their solemn feasts, and one will carry them away with it.

1 And now, O ye priests, this commandment is for you.

2 If ye will not hear, and if ye will not lay it to heart, to give glory unto my name, saith the LORD of hosts, I will even send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings: yea, I have cursed them already, because ye do not lay it to heart.

Context #

The blessings that are cursed

The “blessings” the Lord will curse are read in two ways. One is the priests’ own prosperity (“I will curse your prosperity”) or, more narrowly, their revenues: tithes and…

The “blessings” the Lord will curse are read in two ways. One is the priests’ own prosperity (“I will curse your prosperity”) or, more narrowly, their revenues: tithes and portions of the sacrifices. The other is “the blessings pronounced by the priests upon the people by virtue of their office.” On that reading the blessing in view is the one in the law, where Aaron and his sons were told, “On this wise ye shall bless the children of Israel,” and “they shall put my name upon the children of Israel; and I will bless them” (Num. 6:23; Num. 6:27). To curse such blessings is to “make them ineffective, or turn them into the very opposite.” The Lord adds, “I have cursed them already”: the Hebrew verb is a perfect, so the curse is not only threatened but under way.

The verse speaks in the words of the covenant curses. “I will even send a curse upon you” has the noun of Moses’ warning to Israel, “The Lord shall send upon thee cursing, vexation, and rebuke” (Deut. 28:20). That noun (me’erah) is rare: it is found in only five places in the Hebrew Bible, Deuteronomy 28:20, this verse, and Mal. 3:9 among them.

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Malachi, In Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub. Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906. New International Version, Biblica, 2011; on BibleGateway.

3 Behold, I will corrupt your seed, and spread dung upon your faces, even the dung of your solemn feasts; and one shall take you away with it.

Language #

Seed or arm, and the dung of the feasts

“Corrupt your seed” is hard to read, and the difficulty is in both the verb and the noun.

“Corrupt your seed” is hard to read, and the difficulty is in both the verb and the noun. The verb (ga‘ar) means “rebuke,” and the ESV and NRSVUE translate “I will rebuke your offspring.” The noun is the harder part. The three consonants of “seed” (zera‘) can also be vowelled as “arm” (zero‘a), “the arm, namely, of priests, that they may not extend it to bless.” One reading follows the Septuagint (the ancient Greek translation) and the Vulgate in taking “arm,” because the priests did not farm, so that a failed harvest would not be “a punishment peculiar to the priests,” while a rebuked arm “signifies the neutralizing of the official duties performed at the altar and in the sanctuary.” The NIV has “rebuke your descendants” and offers “will blight your grain” as an alternative. Translators have not agreed on which is meant.

The second image is plain. The Lord will spread on the priests’ faces the dung of their solemn feasts, that is, of the animals offered at the festivals (the NIV: “your festival sacrifices”). Under the law the dung of a sin offering was carried out with the rest of the animal “without the camp” (Lev. 4:11–12). Here the priests’ sacrifices are treated as “being themselves dung,” and the priests with them: it is the Lord’s repayment for the contempt condemned in chapter 1 (Mal. 1:8), shown “by offering blind or lame animals.” For the last clause, “one shall take you away with it,” the NIV has “you will be carried off with it”; the NRSVUE has “I will put you out of my presence,” with a note comparing the Greek and Syriac.

Sources: Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906. Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Malachi, In Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub. English Standard Version, Crossway, 2016; on BibleGateway. New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition, National Council of Churches, 2021; on BibleGateway. New International Version, Biblica, 2011; on BibleGateway. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Verses 4–7

The covenant with Levi

In plain words

They will know the Lord sent the commandment so that His covenant might be with Levi. That covenant was “of life and peace,” given to Levi for the fear with which he feared the Lord. The law of truth was in his mouth, nothing wrong was found on his lips, he walked with the Lord in peace and equity, and he turned many away from iniquity. A priest’s lips should keep knowledge, and people should seek the law from him, for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts.

4 And ye shall know that I have sent this commandment unto you, that my covenant might be with Levi, saith the LORD of hosts.

Context #

The covenant with Levi

“Levi” here is the tribe descended from him, and the “work of ministering in the sanctuary was assigned to this tribe.”

“Levi” here is the tribe descended from him, and the “work of ministering in the sanctuary was assigned to this tribe.” The covenant is the Lord’s with that tribe, and earlier scripture gives its terms. Moses says that Levi “observed thy word, and kept thy covenant,” and that Levi “shall teach Jacob thy judgments, and Israel thy law” (Deut. 33:9–10); the Lord gave Phinehas “my covenant of peace” and “the covenant of an everlasting priesthood” (Num. 25:12–13). Verses 5–7 speak in the same terms: a covenant “of life and peace,” and a priest at whose mouth the people “seek the law.”

The purpose clause of verse 4 is plainer in recent translations: the Lord sends this warning so that His covenant with Levi “may continue” (NIV) or “may stand” (ESV). The rebuke is meant to keep the covenant, and verses 5–9 measure the priests by it.

Sources: “Levites”, Bible Dictionary. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. New International Version, Biblica, 2011; on BibleGateway. English Standard Version, Crossway, 2016; on BibleGateway.

5 My covenant was with him of life and peace; and I gave them to him for the fear wherewith he feared me, and was afraid before my name.

6 The law of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not found in his lips: he walked with me in peace and equity, and did turn many away from iniquity.

7 For the priest’s lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth: for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts.

Language #

The priest as the Lord’s messenger

The priest is called “the messenger of the LORD of hosts,” and the word links this chapter to the name of the book and to the prophecy of Mal. 3:1.

The priest is called “the messenger of the LORD of hosts,” and the word links this chapter to the name of the book and to the prophecy of Mal. 3:1. “Messenger” is mal’ak, used here in the sense “priest.” The word occurs three times in Malachi: here, and twice in Mal. 3:1, where the Lord says “I will send my messenger” and names “the messenger of the covenant.” The prophet’s own name, in Mal. 1:1, means “my messenger.” So the first use of the word in the book is for a priest, and what the verse asks of a priest is teaching: his lips “should keep knowledge,” and people “should seek the law at his mouth.”

The word the KJV renders “law” in verses 6–9 is torah, which the NRSVUE and ESV translate “instruction” in verses 6–8 (the ESV’s note: “Or law”). The priest’s chief duty here is to teach, and verses 8–9 name failures in that same area, the law and its application. The portrait of Levi in verse 6 is of a teacher who “did turn many away from iniquity.”

Sources: Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906. Westminster Leningrad Codex, with morphology, Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (OSHB), openscriptures/morphhb. Malachi, Scripture Helps: Old Testament (2025). New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition, National Council of Churches, 2021; on BibleGateway. English Standard Version, Crossway, 2016; on BibleGateway. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Verses 8–9

The covenant corrupted

In plain words

The priests have left the way, made many stumble at the law, and corrupted the covenant of Levi. So the Lord has made them contemptible and base before all the people, because they have not kept His ways and have been partial in the law.

8 But ye are departed out of the way; ye have caused many to stumble at the law; ye have corrupted the covenant of Levi, saith the LORD of hosts.

Language #

From turning many away to making many stumble

The priests’ failure is set against Levi’s success with the same Hebrew word, “many” (rabbim).

The priests’ failure is set against Levi’s success with the same Hebrew word, “many” (rabbim). Faithful Levi “did turn many away from iniquity” (verse 6); the priests of Malachi’s day “have caused many to stumble at the law” (verse 8). The office that was meant to turn people from sin now makes them fall: the Lord “reproved the priests for setting a poor example that caused many people to stumble.”

What “at the law” means is read two ways. The KJV makes the law what the people stumble on. The NRSVUE, NIV, and ESV read “by your instruction” or “by your teaching,” which makes the priests’ own teaching the cause. Either way the failure is in what the priests taught and showed. Verse 9 then answers measure for measure: they were “partial in the law” (“shown partiality,” NRSVUE and NIV), and so the Lord has made them “contemptible and base before all the people.”

Malachi does not name the priests’ acts. Nehemiah, who may have been his contemporary, prays in like words against those who “have defiled the priesthood, and the covenant of the priesthood, and of the Levites” (Neh. 13:29), after a grandson of the high priest had become son-in-law to Sanballat (Neh. 13:28).

Sources: Westminster Leningrad Codex, with morphology, Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (OSHB), openscriptures/morphhb. Malachi, Scripture Helps: Old Testament (2025). New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition, National Council of Churches, 2021; on BibleGateway. New International Version, Biblica, 2011; on BibleGateway. English Standard Version, Crossway, 2016; on BibleGateway. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

9 Therefore have I also made you contemptible and base before all the people, according as ye have not kept my ways, but have been partial in the law.

Verses 10–12

Treachery against a brother, and a strange god

In plain words

The prophet asks whether all do not have one father and one God who made them, and why they deal treacherously with one another and profane the covenant of their fathers. Judah has dealt treacherously; an abomination has been done in Israel and Jerusalem. Judah has profaned the holiness of the Lord, which He loved, and married the daughter of a strange god. The Lord will cut off the man who does this from the tents of Jacob, “the master and the scholar,” and the one who brings an offering to the Lord of hosts.

10 Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us? why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, by profaning the covenant of our fathers?

Language #

One father, one God, and the covenant of the fathers

The chapter turns from the priests to the whole people with a question about what they are to one another.

The chapter turns from the priests to the whole people with a question about what they are to one another. The “one father” is God: “We are all children of the same God. When we mistreat a brother or sister, we offend our Heavenly Father as well.” He is “neither Adam, the progenitor of all men, nor Abraham, the father of the Israelitish nation”; Abraham is ruled out because “not only the Israelites, but also the Ishmaelites and Edomites were descended from Abraham,” and the Lord has already called Himself a father in this book: “if then I be a father, where is mine honour?” (Mal. 1:6). Every Israelite is then a child of God and so a brother or sister to every other, and “every violation of the fraternal relation… was also an offence against God, a desecration of His covenant.” The “covenant of our fathers” is read as the covenant the Lord made with the fathers “when He chose them from among the heathen,” as at Ex. 19:5–6 and Ex. 24:8.

The verb carries as much as the nouns. “Deal treacherously” is bagad, a verb used of acting faithlessly “in the marriage relation, in matters of property or right, in covenants.” Here it is brother against brother; in verse 11 it is Judah; in verses 14–16 it is a husband and his wife. It occurs five times in Malachi, all in verses 10–16. The NRSVUE and ESV translate it “faithless,” the NIV “unfaithful.” One verb names the broken fellowship between brothers and the broken marriage vow, and puts both under the covenant.

Sources: Chapter 34: “Behold, I Will Send You Elijah the Prophet” (Malachi), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (1982), 351–56. Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Malachi, In Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub. Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906. Westminster Leningrad Codex, with morphology, Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (OSHB), openscriptures/morphhb. New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition, National Council of Churches, 2021; on BibleGateway. English Standard Version, Crossway, 2016; on BibleGateway. New International Version, Biblica, 2011; on BibleGateway. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

11 Judah hath dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah hath profaned the holiness of the LORD which he loved, and hath married the daughter of a strange god.

Context #

The daughter of a strange god

Verse 11 charges Judah with marrying women who worshiped other gods. The Hebrew is bat ’el nekar, “daughter of a foreign god”; ’el nekar is a singular form of “foreign gods,” and…

Verse 11 charges Judah with marrying women who worshiped other gods. The Hebrew is bat ’el nekar, “daughter of a foreign god”; ’el nekar is a singular form of “foreign gods,” and the NIV renders the clause as marrying “women who worship a foreign god.” This part of the book speaks “against marriage outside the covenant,” and the offence that verse 12 punishes is “profaning the Lord by marrying women who worship idols.” Malachi “may have been a contemporary of Ezra and Nehemiah,” and both record such marriages. Ezra is told that “the priests, and the Levites” were among those who “have not separated themselves from the people of the lands,” and that “they have taken of their daughters for themselves, and for their sons” (Ezra 9:1–2). Nehemiah saw “Jews that had married wives of Ashdod, of Ammon, and of Moab,” whose children “spake half in the speech of Ashdod” (Neh. 13:23–24).

The verse is also read as a figure. Judah, whom the Old Testament often pictures as the Lord’s wife, “had chosen another partner,” a “temporal or spiritual alliance with a nation that did not regard Jehovah as the Lord of heaven.” The Septuagint has no marriage in the verse at all: Judah “has gone after other gods.” The KJV’s “holiness of the LORD” is “the sanctuary” in the NRSVUE, ESV, and NIV.

Sources: Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906. New International Version, Biblica, 2011; on BibleGateway. “Malachi”, Bible Dictionary. Chapter 34: “Behold, I Will Send You Elijah the Prophet” (Malachi), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (1982), 351–56. Malachi, Scripture Helps: Old Testament (2025). New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition, National Council of Churches, 2021; on BibleGateway. English Standard Version, Crossway, 2016; on BibleGateway. The Septuagint (Rahlfs Greek text, with Brenton’s English translation), Elpenor Bilingual Septuagint. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

12 The LORD will cut off the man that doeth this, the master and the scholar, out of the tabernacles of Jacob, and him that offereth an offering unto the LORD of hosts.

Language #

“The master and the scholar”

“The master and the scholar” is read as the teacher and the follower in the offence of verse 11: “he who teaches such doctrine… and he who follows it.”

“The master and the scholar” is read as the teacher and the follower in the offence of verse 11: “he who teaches such doctrine… and he who follows it.” The Hebrew behind the English is difficult. It is two participles, ‘er we-‘oneh, which the ESV’s note gives as “any who wakes and answers.” One proposal reads ‘ed, “witness,” in place of ‘er, a one-letter change, and compares the Septuagint’s “until” (Greek heos), which reflects the same two consonants: “until he be even cast down from out of the tabernacles of Jacob.” Modern versions follow other paths: “any witness or advocate” (NRSVUE, whose note says the traditional Hebrew text has “arouse”) and “anyone who gives testimony in behalf of the man who does this” (the NIV’s note).

What the versions share is a cutting off, from “the tents of Jacob” (“tabernacles” in the KJV), of the man who does this.

Sources: Chapter 34: “Behold, I Will Send You Elijah the Prophet” (Malachi), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (1982), 351–56. Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906. The Septuagint (Rahlfs Greek text, with Brenton’s English translation), Elpenor Bilingual Septuagint. New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition, National Council of Churches, 2021; on BibleGateway. New International Version, Biblica, 2011; on BibleGateway. English Standard Version, Crossway, 2016; on BibleGateway. Westminster Leningrad Codex, with morphology, Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (OSHB), openscriptures/morphhb.

Verses 13–16

The wife of thy youth

In plain words

A second thing: they cover the Lord’s altar with tears, weeping, and crying out, and He no longer regards the offering or accepts it with favor. They ask why. Because the Lord has been witness between a man and the wife of his youth, whom he has dealt treacherously against, though she is his companion and the wife of his covenant. Verse 15 is obscure in the Hebrew; it asks about “one” and about “a godly seed,” and ends by telling them to take heed to their spirit and not deal treacherously against the wife of his youth. Verse 16 says the Lord, the God of Israel, “hateth putting away,” and that one covers violence with his garment; take heed to your spirit, and do not deal treacherously.

13 And this have ye done again, covering the altar of the LORD with tears, with weeping, and with crying out, insomuch that he regardeth not the offering any more, or receiveth it with good will at your hand.

Context #

Whose tears cover the altar?

Verse 13 opens a second charge, and it does not say whose tears are on the altar.

Verse 13 opens a second charge, and it does not say whose tears are on the altar. “This have ye done again” is “this second thing you do” in the ESV. The result is that the Lord “regardeth not the offering any more.” In chapter 1 the offerings were blemished (Mal. 1:8) and the Lord had “no pleasure” in the priests (Mal. 1:10); here the reason given is another, which verse 14 names.

The tears are read as the wives’: wronged by their husbands, they “would come to the temple and make an appeal to God at the altar.” The sentence can also be taken of the offerers themselves, who weep because their sacrifice is refused (the NRSVUE: “You cover the Lord’s altar with tears, with weeping and groaning because he no longer regards the offering”); verse 14 then answers their “Wherefore?”

Sources: Chapter 34: “Behold, I Will Send You Elijah the Prophet” (Malachi), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (1982), 351–56. English Standard Version, Crossway, 2016; on BibleGateway. New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition, National Council of Churches, 2021; on BibleGateway. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

14 Yet ye say, Wherefore? Because the LORD hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously: yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant.

Language #

The wife of thy covenant

“The wife of thy covenant” calls marriage itself a covenant, and the Lord is its witness.

“The wife of thy covenant” calls marriage itself a covenant, and the Lord is its witness. The word “covenant” (berit) has here the sense “alliance of marriage,” and the verse says who stood by when it was made: the Lord “hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth.” “Companion” is chabereth, “consort, i.e. wife.” The Church teaches the same of marriage now: “When men and women marry, they make solemn covenants with each other and with God.”

The phrase also places her inside Israel’s covenant. This part of the book speaks against “divorces from wives within the covenant,” as verse 11 spoke against marriage outside it.

The charge is stated with the chapter’s verb: the husband has “dealt treacherously” (bagad) against her, and that is why the Lord does not accept the offering. With the covenant with Levi and the covenant of the fathers, this is the third covenant the chapter names.

Sources: Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906. “Malachi”, Bible Dictionary. “Divorce”, Topics and Questions, Gospel Library. Westminster Leningrad Codex, with morphology, Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (OSHB), openscriptures/morphhb. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

15 And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit. And wherefore one? That he might seek a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.

Language #

Verse 15 is uncertain in the Hebrew

The first half of verse 15 cannot be translated with confidence, and the versions say so.

The first half of verse 15 cannot be translated with confidence, and the versions say so. The NIV’s note: “The meaning of the Hebrew for the first part of this verse is uncertain.” The NRSVUE’s: “Meaning of Heb uncertain.” The Hebrew phrase behind “the residue of the spirit” is called “obscure.”

The versions take it in different directions. The KJV reads “did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit.” The NRSVUE has “Did God not make them one, flesh with spirit in it?”; the NIV, “Has not the one God made you?” and “You belong to him in body and spirit”; the ESV, “Did he not make them one, with a portion of the Spirit in their union?” The ESV’s note gives another grammar: “And not one has done this who has a portion of the Spirit. And what was that one seeking?” The Septuagint differs again: “And did he not do well? and there was the residue of his spirit. But ye said, What does God seek but a seed?”

The ending is clearer. In the versions made from the Hebrew the purpose named is “a godly seed” (the NRSVUE and NIV: “godly offspring”), and the verse closes with a command repeated in verse 16: “take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.” No teaching can rest securely on the first half of the verse.

Sources: New International Version, Biblica, 2011; on BibleGateway. New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition, National Council of Churches, 2021; on BibleGateway. English Standard Version, Crossway, 2016; on BibleGateway. Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906. The Septuagint (Rahlfs Greek text, with Brenton’s English translation), Elpenor Bilingual Septuagint. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

16 For the LORD, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting away: for one covereth violence with his garment, saith the LORD of hosts: therefore take heed to your spirit, that ye deal not treacherously.

Language #

The Lord hates putting away

Verse 16 gives the Lord’s own judgment on what the husbands have done: He “hateth putting away,” that is, divorce.

Verse 16 gives the Lord’s own judgment on what the husbands have done: He “hateth putting away,” that is, divorce. The King James Version leaves no doubt who is speaking: “the LORD, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting away.” The word for “putting away” is shallach, “send away,” which with a wife as its object means “divorce” and which here has no object at all.

The Hebrew is terse, and translators handle it differently. Its verb is in the third person, “he hates,” as the NRSVUE’s note says beside its own rendering, “For I hate divorce, says the Lord.” The Septuagint (the ancient Greek translation) took the “he” to be the husband, “if thou shouldest hate thy wife and put her away,” and two modern versions do the same in their text: the NIV, “The man who hates and divorces his wife,” and the ESV, “the man who does not love his wife but divorces her,” which its note marks as probable, comparing the Septuagint and Deut. 24:1–4. Both give the other reading in their notes (the NIV’s: “I hate divorce”). The verse’s closing command does not depend on the choice: “take heed to your spirit, that ye deal not treacherously.”

The companion clause, “one covereth violence with his garment,” is in the NIV a charge against the man who divorces: he “does violence to the one he should protect.”

Divorce under the law of Moses was “permitted under some circumstances because of the hardness of the people’s hearts,” but Jesus said, “from the beginning it was not so” (Matt. 19:8). Of the covenants made in marriage the Church teaches today that “Every effort should be made to keep these covenants and preserve marriage,” and that when divorce occurs, individuals “have the obligation to forgive, lift, and help rather than to condemn” (Divorce, Gospel Library).

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906. New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition, National Council of Churches, 2021; on BibleGateway. The Septuagint (Rahlfs Greek text, with Brenton’s English translation), Elpenor Bilingual Septuagint. New International Version, Biblica, 2011; on BibleGateway. English Standard Version, Crossway, 2016; on BibleGateway. “Divorce”, Bible Dictionary. “Divorce”, Topics and Questions, Gospel Library.

Verse 17

Wearying the Lord

In plain words

The Lord says they have wearied Him with their words. They ask how. By saying that everyone who does evil is good in the Lord’s sight and that He delights in them, or by asking, “Where is the God of judgment?”

17 Ye have wearied the LORD with your words. Yet ye say, Wherein have we wearied him? When ye say, Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the LORD, and he delighteth in them; or, Where is the God of judgment?

Related Scriptures #

The question that chapter 3 answers

The chapter ends on the people’s complaint, and chapter 3 opens with the Lord’s reply.

The chapter ends on the people’s complaint, and chapter 3 opens with the Lord’s reply. They have “wearied the LORD” by saying that everyone who does evil is good in His sight and that He delights in such people, or by asking, “Where is the God of judgment?” The reply is that He is coming: “the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple” (Mal. 3:1), and “I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers” (Mal. 3:5). The judgment they asked for is promised, and it is “threatened against those who wanted the judgment of God to come.”

It begins with the priests this chapter has rebuked. The Lord will “purify the sons of Levi” (Mal. 3:3); He “promised that He would one day purify them so that their offerings would once again be acceptable to Him.”

Seeing Christ in Malachi 2

The chapter’s last question, “Where is the God of judgment?”, is answered with a promise that the Lord will come: “the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in” (Mal. 3:1). “Messenger of the covenant” is “a title of Jesus Christ,” and “can refer to His role of delivering the Father’s covenant to the people of the earth and making salvation possible through His gospel and Atonement.” “Messenger” there is the Hebrew word that verse 7 of this chapter uses of the priest.

Worth exploring next

The covenant of Levi in the law. Deut. 33:8–11 and Num. 25:10–13 are the fuller passages behind verses 4–7.
The same troubles in Ezra and Nehemiah. Ezra 9–10 and Neh. 13:23–31 record intermarriage and the priests’ part in it.
Marriage and divorce. Matt. 19:3–9, with the Church’s Gospel Library entry “Divorce.”
The complaint returns. The people say “It is vain to serve God” (Mal. 3:14), and Mal. 3:16–18 gives the Lord’s answer.

Sources & further reading

The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“Malachi”, Bible Dictionary.
“Levites”, Bible Dictionary.
Malachi, Scripture Helps: Old Testament (2025).
Chapter 34: “Behold, I Will Send You Elijah the Prophet” (Malachi), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (1982), 351–56.
Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Malachi, In Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub.
Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906.
Westminster Leningrad Codex, with morphology, Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (OSHB), openscriptures/morphhb.
The Septuagint (Rahlfs Greek text, with Brenton’s English translation), Elpenor Bilingual Septuagint.
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition, National Council of Churches, 2021; on BibleGateway.
New International Version, Biblica, 2011; on BibleGateway.
English Standard Version, Crossway, 2016; on BibleGateway.
“Divorce”, Bible Dictionary.
“Divorce”, Topics and Questions, Gospel Library.

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