NOTES for Mal 2:13-17

Continuing to speak of the treachery that has permeated the whole life of the chosen people, the prophet Malachi turns to family relationships and, inspired by God, once again goes against the ideas of his time. Of course, the legislation going back to Moses permitted divorce, but there is a difference between what is permitted and what is generally accepted, between what is considered admissible and what is considered normal. As in modern society, in the Israel of Malachi's time people saw nothing wrong with divorce — quite the reverse; the only difference was that in those days a woman was not regarded as a person and had no civil rights. Most women were therefore entirely dependent on their husbands. Yet the marriage bond had come to be regarded as something optional; many did not even think it necessary to divorce and committed adultery, as the saying goes, ‘while their wife was still alive’. Around this time Ezra, who had come from Babylon, demanded that the Israelites leave their foreign wives, and this was met with only a certain sadness. They felt sorry for their wives, who were, after all, not bad women. It occurred to no one to challenge divorce itself, or Ezra's right to intervene in family life.

But Malachi affirms with complete conviction the authentic biblical attitude to marriage and says that the Israelites' sacrifices are not pleasing to God, since the altar is drenched with the tears of suffering women. The very women whose love and trust no one even considers it a sin to betray! The prophet says that God is witness between husband and wife, and marriage is thus an important part of a person's spiritual and religious life, not merely their bodily and social life. Betraying one's marriage, breaking faith, is betrayal before God. In response, the Israelites appealed to the example of the patriarchs, in particular Abraham, who fathered Ishmael by Hagar while Sarah was still alive. The prophet rejects this attempt to justify sin by such an example: Abraham, he says, sought ‘to obtain offspring from God’, not to be unfaithful to his wife. Moreover — and this is very important — the prophet by no means approves of Abraham's action itself. On the contrary, immediately afterwards he calls on people to ‘guard their spirit’ and not do such things. Malachi does not speak against divorce, but permits a man to ‘send away’ his wife only, so to speak, in the most extreme case: if ‘you hate her’. Yet in his view this is nevertheless a sin — an injury inflicted on the woman — and the guilt for this sin remains with the man who divorces her. Thus the prophet preaches monogamy as the normal, right ordering of family life before God; for Malachi, violations of it are sinful in every case.

In the last verse of the chapter, the prophet returns once more to what he said at the very beginning of the book. His contemporaries are not at all tormented by the problem of sin and prosperity, righteousness and suffering. As in the days of Jeremiah, who also encountered this attitude, they say that God looks favourably on evildoers, thereby justifying both their own sins and their disregard for God. They openly refuse to believe in God's justice and are surprised when the prophet speaks of the Creator's wrath. Malachi sees and exposes the enormous difference between the bitter perplexity of the righteous Job and the sayings of the sinful Jews. To take God to task for patiently enduring the wicked's evil deeds and allowing the righteous to suffer, one must oneself be righteous, like Job. A sinful person cannot comprehend God's mercy and patience and has no right to challenge it. Sinful Israel, like any sinful person, should place its hope in God's mercy rather than make accusations. For if it were not for God's patience, what would become of the very person who, though sinful, dares to judge in God's place? This is an exceptionally important position, for it has remained relevant for two and a half thousand years.