Malachi 2:14

And you have said, “What is the reason for this?” It is because the Lord has been a witness between you and the wife of your youth, whom you have despised. Yet she was your partner, and the wife of your covenant.

Catholic Public Domain Version

In The King James Version

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.

In Context

13And you have done this repeatedly: you have covered the altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping and bellowing, to such an extent that I no longer have respect towards the sacrifice, nor do I accept any appeasement that is from your hands.

15Did not One make her, and is she not the remainder of his spirit? And what does one seek, except offspring of God? So then, preserve your spirit, and do not despise the wife of your youth.

Read all of Malachi 2

Cross References

Genesis 2:18The Lord God also said: “It is not good for the man to be alone. Let us make a helper for him similar to himself.”

Judges 11:10They answered him, “The Lord who hears these things is himself the Mediator and the Witness that we shall do what we have promised.”

Proverbs 2:17and who leaves behind the Guide of her youth,

Proverbs 5:20Why are you seduced, my son, by a strange woman, and why are you kept warm by the bosom of another?

Ecclesiastes 9:9Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of your uncertain life which have been given to you under the sun, during all the time of your vanity. For this is your portion in life and in your labor, with which you labor under the sun.

Isaiah 54:6For the Lord has called you, like a woman forsaken and mourning in spirit, and like a wife rejected in her youth, said your God.

Matthew Henry on Malachi 2:11-17

Unlawful Marriages; Breach of the Marriage-covenant; Charge of Corrupt Principles. ( b. c. 400.) 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? 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. 12 The Lord will cut off the man that doeth this,… Read the whole commentary →

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