Malachi 2:15-17
Evangelical Heritage Version
15 No one has done this who has a remnant of the Spirit.[a] And why one? He is seeking offspring from God.[b] So guard yourselves in your spirit, and do not act unfaithfully against the wife you married when you were young. 16 He hates divorce! That is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says. He hates it when a person wears violence as a garment. That is what the Lord of Armies says. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and do not be unfaithful.
17 You have made the Lord weary with your words. You say, “How have we made him weary?” Whenever you say that anyone who does evil is good in the Lord’s eyes or that the Lord takes pleasure in evildoers. Or whenever you say, “Where is the God of justice?”
Read full chapterFootnotes
- Malachi 2:15 Verse 15 is very difficult. There is no consensus about the translation. The Hebrew text translated very literally reads: and not one—he has done; and a remnant of spirit to him, and what the one? Desiring seed God. The translation above is an effort to connect these thoughts into a smooth translation. Other suggested translations for the first part of the sentence are: has not one God made them or has not God made them one; and for the second part of the sentence: he has left a remnant of the Spirit or they are his, in flesh and spirit. What is clear in the verse is that God’s purpose for the lifelong union of one man and one woman is godly offspring and that God hates wrongful divorce.
- Malachi 2:15 Either the man is seeking godly offspring or God seeks offspring. There is no consensus on the translation of this verse. The biggest difficulty is the uncertainty about who or what the word one in the previous sentence refers to.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.