Malachi 2:13-16

Judah Profaned the Covenant

¹³ And this second thing you do. _w You cover the Lord's altar with tears, with weeping and groaning because he no longer regards the offering or accepts it with favor from your hand. ¹⁴ _x But you say, "Why does he not?" Because the Lord _y was witness between you and the wife of your youth, _z to whom _t you have been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant. ¹⁵ _a Did he not make them one, with a portion of the Spirit in their union? ₁ And what was the one God ₂ seeking? _{3 b} Godly offspring. So guard yourselves ₄ in your spirit, and let none of you be _t faithless to the wife of your youth. ¹⁶ "For _c the man who does not love his wife but divorces her, ₅ says the Lord, the God of Israel, covers ₆ his garment with violence, says the Lord of hosts. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and _t do not be faithless."

1. Cross References
   Zechariah 7:3
   Saying to the priests of the house of the Lord of hosts and the prophets, "Should I weep and abstain in the fifth month, as I have done for so many years?
   
2. Cross References
   Malachi 1:2
   I have loved you," says the Lord. But you say, "How have you loved us?" "Is not Esau Jacob's brother?" declares the Lord. "Yet I have loved Jacob
   
3. Cross References
   Malachi 3:5
   Then I will draw near to you for judgment. I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired worker in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, against those who thrust aside the sojourner, and do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts.
   
4. Cross References
   Malachi 2:11
   Judah has been faithless, and abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem. For Judah has profaned the sanctuary of the Lord, which he loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god.
   Isaiah 54:6
   For the Lord has called you like a wife deserted and grieved in spirit, like a wife of youth when she is cast off, says your God.
   
5. Cross References
   Malachi 2:10
   Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us? Why then are we faithless to one another, profaning the covenant of our fathers?
   
6. Cross References
   Matthew 19:4 - 5
   He answered, "Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female.
   Genesis 2:24
   Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
   
7. Cross References
   Ezra 9:2
   For they have taken some of their daughters to be wives for themselves and for their sons, so that the holy race has mixed itself with the peoples of the lands. And in this faithlessness the hand of the officials and chief men has been foremost.
   
8. Cross References
   Malachi 2:10
   Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us? Why then are we faithless to one another, profaning the covenant of our fathers?
   
9. Cross References
   Matthew 5:32
   But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
   Mark 10:9
   What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.
   Mark 10:11
   And he said to them, "Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her.
   Luke 16:18
   Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery.
   1 Corinthians 7:10
   To the married I give this charge (not I, but the Lord): the wife should not separate from her husband
   
10. Cross References
    Malachi 2:10
    Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us? Why then are we faithless to one another, profaning the covenant of our fathers?