Malachi 2:10-16

International Standard Version

A Plea and a Prayer from Malachi

¹⁰ Do we not have one father?^[a] Has not one God created us? Why does each of us act deceitfully, each man against his own brother, to profane the covenant of our ancestors? ¹¹ Judah has become unfaithful, and a detestable thing was committed in Israel and Jerusalem. Indeed, Judah profaned the Holy Place of the Lord, which he loves, and married a daughter of a foreign god. ¹² May the Lord exclude from the community^[b] of Jacob any man who does this, whoever he may be,^[c] even though he brings offerings to the Lord of the Heavenly Armies.

God’s Fourth Complaint: Against His Priests—Marital Abuses

¹³ “This is another thing you do: you flood the altar of the Lord with tears, weeping and wailing because he no longer pays attention to your offering nor takes pleasure in it from your hand. ¹⁴ Yet you ask, ‘For what reason?’ Because the Lord acts as a witness between you and the wife of your youth, because you were unfaithful to her, your partner, the wife of your covenant. ¹⁵ Did he not make them^[d] one? And the vestige of the spirit remains in him. And why did he make them one? He was seeking godly offspring. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and don’t be unfaithful to the wife of your youth.

¹⁶ “Indeed, the Lord God of Israel says that he hates divorce, along with the one who conceals his violence by outward appearances,”^[e] says the Lord of the Heavenly Armies. “So guard yourselves carefully,^[f] and don’t be unfaithful.”