Does God Hate Divorce?

Malachi 2:16, The Textual Issue

Malachi 2:16 is famously quoted as saying, "God hates divorce." Often, this quotation will then be pushed further to argue that, since God hates divorce, we should never allow for divorce and remarriage in our churches. A quick quotation from Jesus typically follows, quoting  Luke 16:18 or Mark 10:1-12, where it would seem that Jesus provides no valid reasons for divorce and remarriage. If you are curious about Jesus' sayings in the Gospels, I recommend you listen to our mini excursus in the Gospel of Mark where we unpack the Old Testament understanding of divorce and remarriage, in addition to Jesus and Paul in the New Testament. You can reference the first of those sermons below.

Instead of rehearsing what I have taught elsewhere, I am going to explain what I omitted from my sermons, which was an explanation of Malachi 2:16 and its related issues. Regarding the translation, "God hates divorce," I will argue that this is not what Malachi says at all. I am not alone in this opinion. This is a notoriously difficult text to translate. So difficult in fact, that traditionally, translators have altered the sense of the verb to say, “I hate” instead of “he hates.” I will argue that "He hates" is the better translation. And yet, due to the complexity of this verse, you will see translations like the NASB, which is following the NKJV and KJV, saying,

The Translations Disagree

This is the NASB1995:
"For I hate divorce," says the LORD.

Compare that to other modern translations. This is the ESV:
“For the man who does not love his wife but divorces her, says the LORD,

And finally, the NIV:
“The man who hates and divorces his wife,” says the Lord,

Depending on which translation you use, you may think that the Lord hates divorce, on the one hand. Or, on the other hand, you may think that the Lord is condemning someone who hates and divorces his wife.

As you can see by these translations and my summary, there is a lot at stake in one verse! To make this argument short for time’s sake, translating this phrase as “I hate divorce,” says the Lord,” is problematic for at least three reasons.

Three Reasons "I hate divorce" Is Likely An Inaccurate Translation of Malachi 2:16

First, it is a poor reflection of the Hebrew text, changing the sense of the verb entirely. Since most of us do not know Hebrew, I will not explain that here but simply note it as my position.

Second, it makes translating the next phrase very difficult, which says,

“"For I hate divorce," says the LORD, the God of Israel, "and him who covers his garment with wrong," says the LORD of hosts.

More consistently, we see the ESV and others translate the subject as “he” in both cases.

The problem with splitting the subject as "I" in one half and "he/him who covers" in the next, is that those two statements (hating divorce/covering his garment) are parallel statements.  If they're parallel, we would need significant textual or contextual reasons to offset the parallelism. Here again is the ESV:

“For the man who does not love his wife but divorces her, says the LORD, the God of Israel, covers his garment with violence, says the LORD of hosts..."

Notice how the ESV has the same subject at the beginning ("The man who does not love his wife") as the second statement ("[he] who covers his garment with violence). 

Again, a different approach is taken by the NASB, KJV, and NKJV. They translate one verb as “I hate” and the other as “him who covers,” which makes them no longer parallel statements. One is “I,” the other is, “him.”

More consistently, in my opinion, we see the ESV and others translate the subject as “he” in both cases. Not only would I argue this is a superior reading of the Hebrew text (an argument I will not make here but I am stating to make my stance clear), but I also argue the ESV and others better explain the parallel verbs of "hating" and "covering". The ESV says “the man who does not love his wife” and then continues with the same subject, “covers his garments.” Seeing these statements in parallel also supports our third reason.

The third reason that this text should be read as, “The man who hates and divorces his wife..." (NIV), is because the phrase “hating” is a
technical phrase in divorce documents. Said another way, when it says that "a man hates and sends away," it is echoing a well-established divorce clause of "hating and sending" (See David Instone-Brewer, Divorce and Remarriage in the Bible: The Social and Literary Context (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2002; pgs. 76-78).

I quote David Instone-Brewer at length here and modify the quotation slightly for readability.

Here is one example of a marriage contract from around 5th century B.C. After the vows and dowry are listed, it says,

“Tomorrow or the next day, should the husband stand up in an assembly and say: 'I hated my wife, she shall not be my wife,' silver of hatred is on his head. He shall giver his wife silver, 7 shekels 2 quarters, and all that she brought in her hand she shall take out, from straw to string.

Tomorrow or the next day, should the wife stand up in an assembly and say: 'I hated you; I will not be your wife,' silver of hatred is on her head. She shall give to her husband silver, 7 shekels 2 quarters, and all that she brought in her hand she shall take out,
from straw to string."

**It continues on like this and, and I’ll end with the final paragraph:

“And moreover the husband shall not be able to refuse his wife the law of one or two of his colleagues’ wives. And if he refuses, it is hatred. He shall do to her the law of hatred. And moreover, the wife shall not refuse to her husband the law of one or two. And if she refuse for him, it is hatred. She shall do to him the law of hatred.”

That is a lot of hatred language for a marriage contract and terms of divorce!

Indeed, “hating” and “sending” are technical terms for divorce. Therefore, Malachi 2:16 makes that much more sense when we read
something like the NIV, “The man who hates and divorces his wife..." rather than, "'For I hate divorce,' says the LORD..." (NASB95).

What Is Malachi 2:16 Saying, Then?

To be clear, just because we argue that Malachi 2:16 should not read as, “I hate divorce, says the Lord" does not mean that the Lord therefore loves divorce.

Rather, Malachi 2:16 affirms what the Law, the Prophets, and your entire Bible affirms: namely, that God does not stand idly by when His people break their marriage covenants.

The Lord has high and specific standards for marriage. Marriage has clear and defined terms, like a contract. In Malachi 2, the Lord is accusing the men of Israel of sending away, hating the wives of their youth, and marrying foreign wives in their place. Then Malachi asks, “Where is the God of justice?” In other words, when will God stand up on behalf of these abandoned Israelite women, who have no land, food, clothing, or marital rights?

He is coming. Indeed, Malachi ends where the Gospels begin, with the coming of Elijah the prophet, turning the hearts of children to their
fathers, which was John the Baptist.

And here comes Jesus in Mark 10. We are about to find out whether or not Israel has repented of her sin. Specifically, we are about to find out whether or not the men of Israel have loved the wives of their youth, clothing them, feeding them, enjoying intimacy and children, or have they not? Have they forsaken the wives of their youths? Have they enabled adultery and idolatry? Have they twisted they Law of God to justify their divorce and adultery? Have they cause one of God's little ones to stumble? May it never be.