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“Therefore, I have caused you to be ignored and belittled before all people to the extent that you are not following after me and are showing partiality in your[a] instruction.”

The Rebellion of the People

10 Do we not all have one father?[b] Did not one God create us? Why do we betray one another, thus making light of the covenant of our ancestors? 11 Judah has become disloyal, and unspeakable sins have been committed in Israel and Jerusalem. For Judah has profaned[c] the holy things that the Lord loves and has turned to a foreign god![d]

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Footnotes

  1. Malachi 2:9 tn Heb “in the instruction” (so NASB). The Hebrew article is used here as a possessive pronoun (cf. NRSV, NLT).
  2. Malachi 2:10 sn The rhetorical question Do we not all have one father? by no means teaches the “universal fatherhood of God,” that is, that all people equally are children of God. The reference to the covenant in v. 10 as well as to Israel and Judah (v. 11) makes it clear that the referent of “we” is God’s elect people.
  3. Malachi 2:11 tn Or perhaps “secularized”; cf. NIV “desecrated”; TEV, NLT “defiled”; CEV “disgraced.”
  4. Malachi 2:11 tn Heb “has married the daughter of a foreign god.” Marriage is used here as a metaphor to describe Judah’s idolatry, that is, her unfaithfulness to the Lord and “remarriage” to pagan gods. But spiritual intermarriage found expression in literal, physical marriage as well, as vv. 14-16 indicate.

“So I have caused you to be despised(A) and humiliated(B) before all the people, because you have not followed my ways but have shown partiality(C) in matters of the law.”(D)

Breaking Covenant Through Divorce

10 Do we not all have one Father[a]?(E) Did not one God create us?(F) Why do we profane the covenant(G) of our ancestors by being unfaithful(H) to one another?

11 Judah has been unfaithful. A detestable(I) thing has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem: Judah has desecrated the sanctuary the Lord loves(J) by marrying(K) women who worship a foreign god.(L)

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Footnotes

  1. Malachi 2:10 Or father