Bible Question:
"I hate divorce" What is the meaning of Malachi 2:16? Someone has said this verse was mistranslated in the King James Version.
Bible Answer:
Most Bibles record that God said, “I hate divorce” in Malachi 2:16. Most modern Bibles translate the Hebrew text just as the King James Bible does. But the English Standard Version Bible (ESV) does not say that God hates divorce in Malachi 2:16. The ESV is one of the isolated Bibles that does not translate the Hebrew text as “I hate divorce.” Here is Malachi 2:16.
“For I hate divorce,” says the LORD, the God of Israel, “and him who covers his garment with wrong,” says the LORD of hosts. “So take heed to your spirit, that you do not deal treacherously.” Malachi 2:16 (NASB)
So, this creates the question, “Is the ESV correct?” What is the meaning of Malachi 2:16? Does God hate divorce?
If you read the Legacy Standard Bible (LSB), the New American Standard Bible (NASB), the King James Version Bible (KJV), the New King James Version Bible (NKJV), the New International Version Bible (NIV), the Lexham English Bible (LEB), the New Living Translation Bible (NLT), the Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB), and the NET Bible, you will discover that all these Bibles include the phrase, “For I hate divorce,” in Malachi 2:16. But the ESV does not include the phrase, “For I hate divorce.” That is, the ESV leaves the impression that God does not hate divorce.
The ESV did not include the phrase, “For I hate divorce,” because the Hebrew text of Malachi 2:16 is difficult to translate. It translates Malachi 2:16 as,
“For the man who does not love his wife but divorces her, says the LORD, the God of Israel, covers his garment with violence, says the LORD of hosts. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and do not be faithless.” Malachi 2:16 (ESV)
The ESV leaves the impression that God is concerned about the husband who hates his wife, and consequently divorces her. So, the ESV eliminates God in Malachi 2:16 as the one who hates divorce. The other Bibles clearly state that God Himself hates divorce. That is a significant change.
For those who are interested in a very brief summary of the problem, the NET Bible has provided a short discussion about the complexity of the translation of the phrase, “For I hate divorce” in a footnote that we have provided [1]. For those who would like a summary, Peter Verhoff in his commentary on Malachi makes the point that God is clearly speaking in the context, in the verse, and in the sentence. He writes,
Therefore, we prefer the reading according to which God is the subject, and only the Masoretic punctuation is altered to provide a participle with a suppressed personal pronoun: “I hate, I am hating.” The participle suggests continuity. The Lord continually and habitually hates.[2]
It is more accurate to understand that God himself hates divorce.
It is important to note that the Jewish rabbi Hillel said that if a husband hated his wife, he could divorce her.[3] But that was contrary to God’s design for marriage. Sadly, rabbit Hillel used Deuteronomy 24:1-4 to justify divorce for any reason. But, Jesus told us that from the beginning God planned for a husband and wife to remain together and not divorce. God never wanted them to separate. Here is Jesus’ comment,
“So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.” They said to Him, “Why then did Moses command to GIVE HER A CERTIFICATE OF DIVORCE AND SEND her AWAY?” He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses permitted you to divorce your wives; but from the beginning it has not been this way. And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery.” Matthew 19:6-9 (NASB)
God only allowed divorce because of the hardness of man’s heart. Yet, He still hated divorce. So, Matthew 19:1-9 provides an illustration and Malachi 2:16 provides the divine principle that God hates divorce.
We must not forget the preceding verse, Malachi 2:15. It tells us that any husband who divorces his spouse has a serious spiritual problem and has acted treacherously against the wife. The same principle also applies to wives. The key to a happy marriage is not sex. It is a close relationship with God and a heart of humility. We encourage the reader to visit the series of studies, “Marriage In Splendor – God’s View.” The article “Why does God hate divorce if He allows it?” is also important to this question.
References:
1. Biblical Studies Press, The NET Bible First Edition; Bible. English. NET Bible.; The NET Bible (Biblical Studies Press, 2005). Footnote on the word “hate” in Malachi 2:16 states,
“The verb שָׂנֵא (sane’) appears to be a third person form, “he hates,” which makes little sense in the context, unless one emends the following word to a third person verb as well. Then one might translate, “he [who] hates [his wife] [and] divorces her … is guilty of violence.” A similar translation is advocated by M. A. Shields, “Syncretism and Divorce in Malachi 2, 10–16,” ZAW 111 (1999): 81–85. However, it is possible that the first person pronoun אָנֹכִי (’anokhi, “I”) has accidentally dropped from the text after כִּי (ki). If one restores the pronoun, the form שָׂנֵא can be taken as a participle and the text translated, “for I hate” (so NAB, NASB, NRSV, NLT).
2. Pieter A Verhoef. The Books of Haggai and Malachi. The New International Commentary on the Old Testament. Eerdmans Publishing. 1987. p. 278-279. Author states,
Therefore, we prefer the reading according to which God is the subject, and only the Masoretic punctuation is altered to provide a participle with a suppressed personal pronoun: “I hate, I am hating.” The participle suggests continuity. The Lord continually and habitually hates. The object of his hate is denoted in terms of a Piel infinitive construct, sallah, “to send away. ” In Isa. 50: 1 the Hebrew verb has the meaning of divorce, in connection with the “certificate of divorce.”
3. Michael Fishbane. The Jewish Study Bible. Jewish Publication Society. Oxford Press. 2004. p. 1272.
Suggested Links:
Marriage In Splendor - God's ViewDivorce & Remarriage
Why does God hate divorce if He allows it?