Malachi 2:16
For the LORD, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting away: for one covereth violence with his garment, saith the LORD of hosts: therefore take heed to your spirit, that ye deal not treacherously. For the LORD, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting away: for one covereth violence with his garment, saith the LORD of hosts: therefore take heed to your spirit, that ye deal not treacherously.
The Lord, the God of Israel, hates divorce, the putting away of a wife. To cover violence with one's garment is the cruelty and wrong of that act hidden under a covering. Therefore men are to take heed to their spirit, guarding thoughts, motives, desires, affections and heart, and not deal treacherously with the wife. God's design from the beginning was one man and one wife becoming one flesh, and divorce entered only through hardness of heart and sin. Marriage is the most sacred of earthly ties, a permanent compact that leaves room only for reconciliation and adjustment, so to break it for small grievances or incompatibility is treacherous dealing against the law of God.
Context and Wording
Malachi 2:16 belongs to Malachi 2:1-17, which is about wearying God. The book means My Messenger, closes the canon of the Old Testament, and was written about 400 B.C., perhaps a little later, or as early as 450 B.C. contemporary with the very last of Nehemiah's sojourn at Jerusalem. The verse shares in a condemnation of the degeneracy of the priesthood and of the shortcomings of God's people, using those illustrations to point forward to the closing days of the Christian dispensation, when the Lord is about to come the second time and the judgments of the great day of God will separate between the righteous and the wicked.
The verse declares that the LORD, the God of Israel, hates putting away a wife, that is, divorce. Covering violence with one's garment is a picture of the wrong done by divorce. It condemns the husband and shows cruelty hidden under a covering.
Divorcing the wife of one's youth to take another, especially a younger woman, is dealing treacherously, committing abomination, and profaning the holiness of the Lord and the covenant of fatherhood.
God's Design for Marriage
God's design for marriage is one man and one wife, the two becoming one flesh, and polygamy was never sanctioned by Him, His recognition of those affected by it never making it His order. Marriage is the most sacred of earthly ties. It is upheld for the purity and sanctity of the home and the marriage tie, so divorce as a practice should be stopped. Divorce was not part of God's design in the beginning, but entered only because of hardness of heart and sin in the heart.
The marriage vow is a sacred, permanent compact that shuts the door to separation and leaves open only reconciliation and adjustment. Entering marriage hastily and unadvisedly on short acquaintance violates its sacredness. Breaking marriage for little grievances or incompatibility of temperament is a crying sin and dealing treacherously. The liberty to separate that divorced people seek should forever be denied them, and the low estimate placed on marriage and its responsibilities and the ready favor divorced people find in respectable society encourage disobedience.
Growing disregard for marriage and increase of divorce prove moral degeneracy and the growing prevalence of sin. Growing disregard for the marriage tie is apostasy that counts the law of God itself as obsolete. Divorce is an evil against the law of God, and there are no rights against the law of God on this point.
Guarding Spirit Against Treachery
Malachi 2:16 calls for guarding the spirit by bringing thoughts, motives, desires, affections, and heart under control. The heart instructs the tongue, so when the heart is kept pure and regulated the words and actions accord with it in harmony, peace, love, and obedience. Left to themselves people follow their own spirit and deal unfaithfully, so the inner life must be carefully guarded against unfaithful dealing. That liability present in Malachi's day continued in the apostles' day, requiring watchful oversight rather than leaving people to themselves.
The guarding of the spirit is a guarding against dealing treacherously in marriage and with one's wife, a call to watch inner motives and remain faithful. The Lord hates putting away a wife, and the covering of violence with the garment pictures the wrong done by divorce and condemns the husband who does it. To anticipate divorce without just and wholesome reasons and without clear proof of guilt is selfish.