Commentary on Malachi

“And this again you have done: you covered the altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping and groaning [Vulgate: lowing], so that I no longer regard the sacrifice, nor accept anything pleasing from your hand. And you said: For what reason? Because the Lord has borne witness between you and the wife of your youth, whom you have despised; and she is your companion and the wife of your covenant. Did not one make her, and is she not the residue of his spirit? And what does the one seek but the seed of God? Guard, then, your spirit, and do not despise the wife of your youth. When you hate her, put her away, says the Lord God of Israel; but iniquity will cover his garment, says the Lord of hosts: guard your spirit, and do not despise.” The Septuagint: “And these things which I hated you did: you covered the altar of the Lord with tears, with wailing and groaning from your labours: is it still fitting to regard the sacrifice, or to receive what is acceptable from your hands? And you said, On what account? Because the Lord has borne witness between you and the wife of your youth, whom you have forsaken, and she is your companion and the wife of your testament; and did not another make her, and the remnant of your spirit? And you said: What else does God seek but seed? And guard yourselves in your spirit, and do not forsake the wife of your youth; but if, hating her, you put her away, says the Lord God of Israel, impiety will cover your thoughts, says the Lord almighty; and guard yourselves in your spirit, and do not forsake.” Let us interpret the history and, fitting brief statements to the single verses, set out what has been handed down to us by the Hebrews. The Israelite wives, forsaken, and seeing women of foreign nations in their husbands' beds, fled to the help of God alone; prostrate day and night before the altar of the Lord, with tears, groans and wailing, they brought reproach on his providence, that he did not regard human affairs and did not help their miseries. Hence God says that he cannot accept sacrifice and victim from the hands of the priests who committed these things, being hindered by the weeping and laments of the wives, and that moreover they ask for what reason he does not accept sacrifice from their hands; and he at once adds: “Because the Lord has borne witness between you and the wife of your youth, whom you have despised,” saying: “For this reason a man shall leave father and mother and shall cleave to his wife, and the two shall be in one flesh”; and for this reason she is called companion, and wife of union and covenant, she who was made by God from the man's rib. “And the residue of his spirit” — whether of God, as some think, or of the husband, as others suppose, because through affection one soul seems in a way to be in two, joined in spirit and united in mind. Since, then, one made both, the man and the woman, the union of both was made by God for this reason, that children might be born. For what does the one God seek but the seed of God, that is, children born of the stock of Israel? Since, then, you have fruitful wives and rejoice in children, why do you seek beauty in wives, which befits harlots, not wives? So God commands through the prophet and says: “Guard your spirit,” lest you be led away by lust, lest you be overcome by love of foreign women. “And do not despise the wife of your youth,” so that she who was first joined to you in a virgin marriage may remain until old age. But it could happen that the princes, priests, Levites and people would answer: God commanded through Moses that when we hate our wives we should put them away. And it is to be read thus: You tell me, it is written: “When you hate your wife, put her away, says the Lord God of Israel.” And at once he answered: This indeed was commanded in the law, but because of the hardness of your heart. Which the Lord pursues more fully in the Gospel: “But whoever, except for the cause of sexual immorality, unjustly puts away his wife,” “iniquity will cover his garment” — that is, the body with which the soul is clothed — “says the Lord of hosts”: so that he may be punished in that in which he sinned. Therefore, this little question being resolved, he presses and repeats what he had said above: “Guard your spirit, and do not despise” — either the guarding of your spirit, or certainly your wife, if she is poor or ill-favoured. What we have expounded specifically of the forsaken wives, following the book of Ezra, others think is said generally against those who plunder the goods of others and, gathering riches unjustly, dare to offer gifts to God, which he says he cannot accept, being prevented by the tears and weeping and groans of those who have been ruined; and that this passage agrees with the testimony: “Honour God from your just labours.” And they also insert this sense: that those who, because of the loss of property, the death of children, shipwreck, and the other things that belong to the loss of worldly goods, turn to weeping and give themselves wholly to lamentation and groans, and do not despise everything through strength of mind, hope in God and the rewards of the future — even if they direct prayer to God, it is not accepted by him, because they are disfigured by lamentations unseemly and unfitting for a man. And what follows — “Because the Lord has borne witness between you and the wife of your puberty,” or youth, “whom you have despised; and she is your companion [or part] and the wife of your pact,” or covenant; “and no other made her, and the remnant of your spirit” — they interpret thus: that the wife of youth is natural understanding and the law written in the heart, which is implanted in all men. Hence also the Gentiles, not having the law of God, do the things of the law; and of this spouse it is proclaimed in Proverbs: “A wife is joined to a man by God”; and we are bidden to drink from our own waters and springs, and let no one share in the drinking, and to rejoice with the wife of our youth. This wife drives even unbelievers to say: “May God judge, and may God see”; and “I leave everything between me and you to him to judge.” Of her Ecclesiastes too speaks: “And live life with the woman whom you have loved, all the days of your vanity, which are given you under the sun.” This wife is the residue of our spirit, because she is always joined to our understanding: if she withdraws from us, we at once offend God, and our impiety covers us. Hence again it is urged: “Guard your spirit” — not the flesh, for those who are in it cannot please God; not the soul, for “the natural man does not receive the things that are of the spirit”; but the spirit, “because the Spirit intercedes for us with groans unutterable.”