Malachi 2:14-15

2:14 Yet you ask, “Why?” The Lord is testifying against you on behalf of the wife you married when you were young, 1  to whom you have become unfaithful even though she is your companion and wife by law. 2  2:15 No one who has even a small portion of the Spirit in him does this. 3  What did our ancestor 4  do when seeking a child from God? Be attentive, then, to your own spirit, for one should not be disloyal to the wife he took in his youth. 5 

1 tn Heb “the Lord is a witness between you and [between] the wife of your youth.”

2 sn Though there is no explicit reference to marriage vows in the OT (but see Job 7:13; Prov 2:17; Ezek 16:8), the term law (Heb “covenant”) here asserts that such vows or agreements must have existed. References to divorce documents (e.g., Deut 24:1-3; Jer 3:8) also presuppose the existence of marriage documents.

3 tn Heb “and not one has done, and a remnant of the spirit to him.” The very elliptical nature of the statement suggests it is proverbial. The present translation represents an attempt to clarify the meaning of the statement (cf. NASB).

4 tn Heb “the one.” This is an oblique reference to Abraham who sought to obtain God’s blessing by circumventing God’s own plan for him by taking Hagar as wife (Gen 16:1-6). The result of this kind of intermarriage was, of course, disastrous (Gen 16:11-12).

5 sn The wife he took in his youth probably refers to the first wife one married (cf. NCV “the wife you married when you were young”).