Malachi 2:14

14. Wherefore Wherefore does Jehovah pay no attention to them? This cry gives the prophet an opportunity to present the accusation.

Because Jehovah hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth Of the marriage as well as of the wicked putting away, and as a righteous God he must avenge the wrong; he cannot look with favor upon a hypocrite (Genesis 31:50; compare Isaiah 54:6).

Dealt treacherously In putting her aside when he should have loved her faithfully.

Thy companion In joy and sorrow. This companionship should have united them more closely.

The wife of thy covenant Not the marriage covenant, but the covenant with Jehovah (Malachi 2:10). In contrast to “the daughter of the strange god” (Malachi 2:11), the wife belonging to the religious community of Jehovah. To cast off such a one is a desecration of the covenant (Malachi 2:10).

The translation and interpretation of 15a are matters of dispute; indeed, it is very doubtful if, without deep-going emendations, an entirely satisfactory sense can be had; but who can be certain that the “emended” text represents the thought of the prophet? Two interpretations of the text as it stands may be given. The one is that of Pusey, who follows closely the translation of A.V.

Did not he God.

Make one Adam. “In order to designate the unity of marriage, he willed to create but one.”

Yet had he the residue of the spirit The breath of life by which man became a living soul (Genesis 2:7); this God possessed in an abundant measure, so that, had he desired, he might have created any number of men or women, but he deliberately chose the other way.

Wherefore one? Wherefore did God create one man, and did create from him a mate, the two to be one, never to be put asunder? The answer is supplied by the succeeding clause.

That he might seek a godly seed A seed worthy of God. Only in the manner selected could he accomplish this purpose. 15b is an exhortation to the prophet’s contemporaries. These things being so, they would better be careful about their conduct. Embodying this interpretation, Perowne gives the following translation of 15a: “Did not he (God) make one (one man, and out of him one woman, and the twain ‘one flesh’)? And (yet) the residue of the spirit (of life) was his (so that he could, had it pleased him, have created, for example, one man and many women). And why (did he make) the one? He sought (what only by the purity and integrity of the marriage bond can be secured) a godly seed.” Much, indeed, has to be read between the lines, but when all that is placed in parenthesis is read in or gathered from the text, the result is not inappropriate. But is it the thought Malachi desired to express? He certainly might have expressed it with less obscurity.

Most scholars who retain the present text prefer an entirely different translation and interpretation. In part this translation is given in margin R.V.; for the whole of 15a that of Von Orelli may be quoted: “And not one has done this, while yet a remnant of spirit was in him. And how (did) the one so? In seeking a seed of God.” 15b is again understood as an appeal to the prophet’s contemporaries. According to this translation the prophet means to contrast the conduct of his contemporaries with the actions of past generations, and he declares that no one who had even a remnant of reason or of sense for right and wrong had ever put away his wife in the manner in which they were doing it.

Spirit A sense of right and wrong, the faculty that determines moral and religious actions. How did the one so? (see translation above) These words must be understood either as an objection raised by some bystander, or by the prophet himself to forestall an objection by some one else. The one would be Abraham, who put away Hagar. If their conduct is so reprehensible in the sight of God, how did this friend of God come to put away one who had borne children to him? To this the prophet replies, he did so in order to raise up a godly seed. Had he retained Hagar and her child, the covenant seed might have become tainted and corrupt.

This translation reproduces the Hebrew more faithfully than the other, but again much has to be read between the lines. The construction is peculiar, and the one as a designation of Abraham, who has not yet been named, appears strange. Besides, the analogy breaks down, for Abraham did not put away the wife of his youth, Sarah, but Hagar, who had never been his legitimate wife. It is a very easy way out of the difficulty to say, “One feels the holy indignation under the power of which the prophet speaks in the style, which is abrupt and obscure.” The present writer, however, is inclined to think that the obscurity has arisen not so much from “holy indignation” as from a corruption of the text. Wellhausen rewrites the text, “Hath not one God (compare Malachi 2:10) created and sustained our breath?

And what does he desire? A seed of God.” This gives good sense, for it furnishes two reasons why the hearers should abstain from their evil practices: (1) one God has created both husband and wife (see on Malachi 2:10); (2) he desires a pure offspring, which can be had only if they retain their Jewish wives. But is it the original text?