Lesson 7 – Malachi Chapter 2 Continued
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THE BOOK OF MALACHI
Lesson 7, Chapter 2 Continued

The final chapter of the Book of Daniel begins with these awesome and terror-
filled words, for those who will hear and heed them.

CJB
Daniel 12:1-3 "When that time comes, Mikha'el, the great prince
who champions your people, will stand up; and there will be a time of
distress unparalleled between the time they became a nation and that
moment. At that time, your people will be delivered, everyone whose
name is found written in the book.
2
Many of those sleeping in the dust
of the earth will awaken, some to everlasting life and some to
everlasting shame and abhorrence.
3
But those who can discern will
shine like the brightness of heaven's dome, and those who turn many
to righteousness like the stars, forever and ever.

Daniel, like Malachai, speaks of both present and future in his writings. As is
typical of Old Testament writings, sometimes it can be challenging to separate
which is future and which is present. Yet, as we encounter words like ‘when
that time comes” we can know it speaks of a future, and almost always in the
Bible it is speaking of the last days… the end of the age.

Malachai has spent the bulk of his prophesying aimed squarely at Israel’s
(Judah’s) religious leadership: the Priesthood. Even so, he makes it clear that
the common people also bear culpability for their corrupted beliefs and
immoral behaviors. Nonetheless, it is the leadership that bears the most
accountability. Daniel makes that same distinction by saying that those who
have died will be made alive again, but only some to everlasting life. The
remainder will experience eternal shame. Of those who can discern (meaning,
those who seek and know the truth and practice it versus those who accept
and practice false beliefs), the discerning will shine like the night sky. But,
those who turn many others to righteousness (the religious leadership) will be
like the special brightness of the stars.

So, leaders of those who claim trust in Yeshua and His Father, I begin this
next lesson in Malachai with this thought for you, which reflects Malachai 2:6

Lesson 7 – Malachi Chapter 2 Continued
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and Daniel 12:3. God has an expectation and demand of us to teach truth
through speech, writings, and our personal behavior and to not teach
manmade doctrines. This means to teach the Bible, as opposed to endless
speeches about social topics and self-serving agendas. It involves work, study,
and discipline. If we fail, we are going to bear great consequences. If we
succeed, we are going to bear unbelievable blessings. The biggest blessing will
be knowing that we had a part in leading many into a true faith and trust in
God, as we turn those same many away from deceit and sin. This same
thought continues and is expanded upon in Malachai 2:7. Let’s start by
opening our Bibles to Malachai chapter 2, and begin reading from verse 6 and
onward.

READ MALACHAI 2:6 – end

While I don’t want to take the comparison too far, here in verse 7 when God
says that the priests’ (the cohens’) lips should safeguard knowledge, it
equally applies in all ages and eras to Bible teachers, pastors, and Rabbis. The
reason we can only take this similarity between Levite Priests versus teachers,
pastors and rabbis so far is that the Priesthood was a specially God-ordained
and set-apart group of Hebrews. They were not self-appointed nor were the
occupations that you apply for, as are teachers, pastors, and rabbis. I realize
that in parts of the New Testament epistles Believers are sometimes called
“priests”. But that is a metaphor and is not meaning to equate us with the
Levite Priesthood along with all their functions and responsibilities, nor as its
replacement.

The “lips of the priest” represent the words that come from him. The Hebrew
word following that statement, which is yishmeru, means “they safeguard”.
The idea is that it is the priests’ intended duty to preserve the knowledge of
God’s covenant (often called the Torah, but in many uses stands as a
collective word for all the covenants taken together) and then faithfully
transmit it to the people. In this way, the priests behave as agents speaking
for their single client: Yehoveh. Much of what the priests had to do in teaching
God’s Word, was to interpret its meaning within the context of an infinite
variety of circumstances, which of course changed naturally as the years went
by. They had the advantage of knowing the Hebrew language and culture in

Lesson 7 – Malachi Chapter 2 Continued
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whose context it was written by and to. For us, it is considerably more
challenging. Yet, at the end of the day, it is one thing to occasionally
misunderstand how, exactly, to interpret a law or command for the purpose of
application, and it is quite another to create a doctrine or tradition that
essentially overrides a law of God.

The greatest Torah scholar who ever walked this earth, Yeshua of Nazareth,
says this about that:

CJB
Mark 7:1-9 The P'rushim and some of the Torah -teachers who
had come from Yerushalayim gathered together with Yeshua
2
and
saw that some of his talmidim ate with ritually unclean hands, that is,
without doing n'tilat-yadayim.
3
(For the P'rushim, and indeed all the
Judeans, holding fast to the Tradition of the Elders, do not eat unless
they have given their hands a ceremonial washing.
4
Also, when they
come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they have rinsed
their hands up to the wrist; and they adhere to many other traditions,
such as washing cups, pots and bronze vessels.)
5
The P'rushim and
the Torah-teachers asked him, "Why don't your talmidim live in
accordance with the Tradition of the Elders, but instead eat with
ritually unclean hands?"
6
Yeshua answered them, "Yesha'yahu was
right when he prophesied about you hypocrites - as it is written, 'These
people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far away from me.
7
Their worship of me is useless, because they teach man -made rules
as if they were doctrines.'
8
"You depart from God's command and hold
onto human tradition.
9
Indeed," he said to them, "you have made a
fine art of departing from God's command in order to keep your
tradition!

Yeshua was not telling His listeners that there were in trouble with His Father
when they made the occasional error because of an innocent
misunderstanding. He was saying that when they held up the written Torah
against the rulings of Sages and Rabbis (Traditions and customs), invariably
the choice of the Pharisees was to teach and follow the Traditions and
customs. Like with the Levitical Priests of Malachai, the Pharisees had done
this for so long that in their minds they were doing what was right and

Lesson 7 – Malachi Chapter 2 Continued
4 / 15
teaching truth. It never occurred to them to regularly challenge themselves (or
one another) to ensure that what they were teaching was biblical truth or not.
I cannot say how often they may have consulted Holy Scripture as their
reference as opposed to going by oral and written Traditions, or if they merely
read and quoted Scripture in truth, but then lived out Tradition instead by
twisting the Scripture’s words to arrive at a desired conclusion. Yeshua
referred to this practice of substituting traditions for Scripture as the Pharisees
having made a fine art of it. That is, they did it so seamlessly well, that they
deceived themselves as well as their congregations.

At this point in history, Judaism has never before attained such a high level of
Tradition as their well of truth as we find it in the 21
st
century. And it is also a
fact that Christendom has never before attained such a high level of doctrines
as their source of truth as it is in the 21
st
century. I have expressed before
that while for 1600 years Christendom has officially shunned the Old
Testament and looks only to the New, that even that shrinking source of
biblical truth has only accelerated. Many decades ago, a bent against the Book
of Matthew and the Book of Hebrews as being “too Jewish” took place and so
Gospel study was reduced primarily to Luke, Mark, and John. Until 175 years
ago, the Book of Hebrews had gone missing in Protestant Bibles, and still is
missing in several denominations’ Bibles. Today, however, the Gospels are
becoming less popular and trusted because the new mantra is that only the
words Yeshua spoke AFTER His resurrection have any bearing on Christians.
His earlier words either confuse or were meant only for Jewish ears. So, now,
it is primarily Paul’s Epistles that are accepted and consulted within the
mainstream Church. Most congregations don’t really even notice it, but neither
did the common folks of Malachai’s day, and later Yeshua’s day, notice these
discrepancies. Traditions and doctrines are powerful things. It is not those that
need to be safeguarded: it is biblical truth. And, today, Holy Scripture is not in
much demand, nor does Church or Synagogue teach it more than a selective
smattering of it to validate some social teaching or denominational agenda
item.

Bottom line: we have arrived at the same place the Priesthood and Jewish
society in general had arrived in Malachai’s era; and so, what we read in
Malachai can be easily and properly superimposed over all that we see

Lesson 7 – Malachi Chapter 2 Continued
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happening in Church and Synagogue. The result? People don’t know truth, so
they can’t live truth. Worse yet, people and the leaders are certain they are
secure in God’s love and will regardless, when actually they are far away and
in more danger than they have any idea of. This situation infuriates The
Father, and so He finds those few who He can use (and are willing) to warn
and cajole because what must be said is anything but popular. That is, despite
the typical profession of ignorance or finger pointing by clergy and laymen
should they be shown their error, the truth is that both the leaders and the
people are practicing a kind of willful ignorance and finding out the truth is
more a fly in the ointment than a reason to change their beliefs.

Turning to another Hebrew word that we find in the opening of verse 7, is
da’at, which means knowledge. Yet, it is a word that in the Bible almost
always means knowledge of God as we find in the Torah, as opposed to just a
general acquisition of facts. So, it is a specific body of knowledge that the
Priesthood is to hang onto and communicate, and that the people are
obligated to learn and follow. In fact, verse 7 concludes with the reality that
the Levitical Priesthood is to behave as, and been seen as, God’s collective
messenger to the people. It should not go unnoticed that the Hebrew term for
messenger is the same as that for angel (malak). Even more, here in verse 7
is the only place in the Bible when the term “messenger (or angel) of
Yehoveh Tzva’ot” is applied to the Priesthood. Usually, malak is a term
reserved for the Prophets. So, here we see a most important notion begin to
be developed.

Prophets as messengers of God had a different meaning in the Old Testament
than it does in the New Testament. With Malachai, the end of the era of the
Prophets arrived. Each Prophet had brought with them a new oracle from God
to be added to the knowledge of God that came before that latest Prophet.
Upon the New Testament era, a Prophet still had to do with a communicating a
message from God, but now it was not new divine revelation but rather the
divine revelation that already existed in written form that was to be taught and
followed. Essentially a Prophet came to mean a Bible teacher.

It is interesting in this wordplay on the word malak (messenger) that we see
that it is the root of Malachai’s own name. It also highlights how the priests

Lesson 7 – Malachi Chapter 2 Continued
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were to be these messengers of truth. Once again we have a veiled allusion to
Malachai likely having been a priest, himself, and only recently called to hold
the office of Prophet. Malachai has such concerns and knowledge of the
Priesthood and the Temple and the Torah that one normally wouldn’t find
outside of a small circle of the more senior priests.

After explaining what a priest should do in verse 7, verse 8 says “here is what
you actually did”. The priests knew what they were supposed to do, but they
fell away from the path of truth and righteousness, and in doing so took many
common folks with them. I can’t help but remembering what we read in
Revelation about something quite similar that happens in Heaven, because
virtually the same dynamic is in play on earth and here in Malachai.

CJB
Revelation 12:7-9
7
Next there was a battle in heaven - Mikha'el
and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his
angels fought back.
8
But it was not strong enough to win, so that
there was no longer any place for them in heaven.
9
The great dragon
was thrown out, that ancient serpent, also known as the Devil and
Satan [the Adversary], the deceiver of the whole world. He was hurled
down to the earth, and his angels were hurled down with him.

Here we see a leader in Heaven that became corrupt (Satan), and there were
those heavenly beings that he held some sway over (called angels in this
passage) who aligned with him. No doubt, it was Satan who enticed those
angels to replace God’s truth with the Adversary’s agenda, and the result was
they were all removed from the presence of God.

The strength of Yehoveh’s accusation towards these Priests is made all the
stronger when we look at the original Hebrew. Nearly all English Bibles open
verse 8 with: “But you turned away from the path”, or “But you departed out
of the way”. What it literally says is, “And you, yourselves, have turned from
the way”. “You, yourselves” is, biblically, a very emphatic term. It means that
they can’t consider themselves as the exempt part of a group or the exception
to the rule. They can’t say that they aren’t who God is upset with; it’s those
other guys. This accusation is personal and intimate, and it exempts none.

Lesson 7 – Malachi Chapter 2 Continued
7 / 15
Turning aside from the way, means to turn aside from the covenant. Here the
covenant (which is grammatically singular) is a catch-word for the sum of all
the covenants God has made with Israel, including the New Covenant that
Jeremiah had pronounced only a century earlier. It is ironic that a substantial
part of the modern Church has adopted the phrase “The Way” to refer to their
New Testament Church attachments, thinking that it was Jesus who brought
“the way” with Him. Yet, it is a much more ancient and Jewish cultural
expression that means to be true to God’s covenants with Israel. What makes
it ironic is that Constantinian Christianity in general denounces and renounces
all of God’s covenants save for the newest one. What is often overlooked is
that despite the Christian mantra that this one newest covenant was for
gentiles, the fact is that where it appears in Jeremiah 31, it says explicitly that
it is a covenant God is making between He and Israel and Judah.

The accusation is now repeated that the priests were the cause of many falling
away from Torah. You might note that in your Bible, it usually says falling
away from the law. That is a mistranslation. The original Hebrew word is
specifically “Torah”. And the Torah is a specific body of instruction that
includes the Law of Moses. So, what the priests caused many to fall away from
was not some hazy generalized morality or set of ethics, but rather the specific
commandments of God. They were breaking the Law at every turn, and this
because they either didn’t know the Law or the priests had taught them
something different than what the Law actually said.

Verse 9 expresses some of the consequences and issues about their falling
away from Torah.

CJB
Malachi 2:9 "Therefore I have in turn made you contemptible and
vile before all the people, because you did not keep my ways but were
partial in applying the Torah."

The divinely given punishment of the priests for what they did was that God
put disgust and enmity in the hearts of the people toward them. The people
lost respect for the Priesthood, and with the loss of respect came their loss of
authority, and with their loss of authority came the loss of restraint placed
upon the people by means of their former acceptance of the leadership of the

Lesson 7 – Malachi Chapter 2 Continued
8 / 15
Tribe of Levi; it simply evaporated. It was replaced with derision and
suspicion. When we lose faith in our religious leadership, it can be catastrophic
for the body of Believers. No one cares what they have to say, any longer.
Some folks will remain so shattered by it, that they will turn their backs on
their faith and walk away from it (it happens every day). People react quite
interestingly when they no longer have respect for their leaders. People find
themselves angry but rudderless like a rebellious teen. They lose restraint in
their behavior because they no longer fear the authority of the leadership.
Each turn to anarchy, doing whatever they feel like they want to do, believing
whatever seems good to them. In other words, what was a biblically-based
society breaks down. So, the matter of a corrupt priesthood that has lost its
way goes far deeper on a nation than only a loss of people knowing God’s
truth.

Some of what the people saw happen with the Priesthood is that they meted
out privilege and justice with partiality. It is to be noticed that earlier in
Malachai, God accused the Priests of despising Him, with the proof of it in their
actions of offering Him faulty and unclean sacrifices on the Temple Altar. Here
in verse 9, we find the same Hebrew word (bazah) that is now translated as
contemptable but earlier was translated as despised. By using the same
translation (despised) in both places (as it should be), then we see the point:
God’s justice is always proportional… measure for measure. Since the priests
despised (bazah) God, then God caused the people to despise (bazah) the
priests. Just another reminder of how translating any language into another
will wind up obscuring its meaning at times, because language is always a
product of, and organically connected to, its native culture.

Before we move on to verse 10, which begins a 3
rd
burden or oracle from God,
I want to take a moment to sum up what the last 3 or 4 verses explain to us.
First and foremost, the Levitical Priests had set God on the shelf, created a
charade, and both trusted in and taught to the people a system of lies.
Second, is that both the external and interior carry out of our faith are
necessary to please Our Father. It is ironic that in Judaism, it is the outward
external behaviors that are valued, rather than living out the spirit of their
covenant with God. And in Christendom, it is the internal beliefs that are
valued, making our outward behaviors nearly irrelevant. One group wants to

Lesson 7 – Malachi Chapter 2 Continued
9 / 15
make a Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich with only peanut butter, and the
other group using only jam, but groups still insist on calling the results a
Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich.

These last few verses have shown, decisively, that both our outward behaviors
and our inward sincerity and devotion, must be present. As regarded the
Priesthood, it meant following through will all their duties properly. They had
stopped sacrificing properly, and had stopped teaching truth. Yet, all that was
because they had lost their inner sincerity and devotion to Yehoveh and to His
Word of truth. As it applies to modern day Believers, our behaviors and deeds
must reflect our inner trust in God’s truth. If they do not, then God says we
have no sincere inner trust towards Him. Remember what Yeshua’s biological
brother James said:

CJB
James 2:20 But, foolish fellow, do you want to be shown that such
"faith" apart from actions is barren?

Third, everything we’ve been reading about has to do with our side of
covenant obligations. Christendom long ago announced that Believers have no
covenant obligations. It’s all on God, and therefore outside of our belief in
Christ as Savior, nothing else is expected of us. Our mainstream institutions
bandy about the word “covenant” when convenient, but then turn around and
neuter its meaning. There is no such thing as a covenant without both parties
having obligations.

Fourth, God’s stated goal was to drive the Priesthood and the people back to
true truth and back to true worship of Him. The means was to remind them
yet again of what they were doing wrong, punishing them for it proportionally
(that is, doing justice), telling them what to do that is right, and making it
clear that if they will repent and change His favor will once again fall upon
them instead of His wrath.

Verses 10 through 16 form a 3
rd
oracle of Malachai. While all the things the
priests have been accused of to this point are bad enough, now is added the
grievous sin of corrupt and perverted behavior against their fellow Hebrews in
general, and against their wives in particular. I’ll begin by telling you that as

Lesson 7 – Malachi Chapter 2 Continued
10 / 15
straightforward as Malachai generally is in understanding its words, this
passage is a notoriously challenging one to interpret, and so one can imagine
that there are various views of how to go about getting it right. Nearly every
English Bible version has a slightly different set of words it uses for each one
of these verses 10 – 16. So, let’s see how we can unpack this important
passage to get the most out of it that we are intended to. Verse 10 (according
to the CJB) says this:

CJB
Malachi 2:10 Don't we all have the same father? Didn't one God
create us all? Then why do we break faith with each other, profaning
the covenant of our ancestors ?

Asking, “don’t we all have the same father” is a rhetorical question, with the
only proper answer being “yes”. Notice how Malachai injects himself into this
equation by using the pronoun “we” rather than “you”. Once again, the
primary target is the Priesthood, and here Malachai includes himself by saying
“we”. Immediately, however, the question becomes: so, who, exactly, is
Malachai assuming is the common father to all the priests and the Hebrew
people? By Tradition that person is Abraham. That is, father here being taken
to mean the Patriarch of the Hebrew people.

It is important that we grasp that the Hebrew people didn’t think in terms of
their common father as being God. Earlier in Malachai, however, we see the
Prophet identify Yehoveh as the true father of the Hebrews. Naturally, as
concerns God, Malachai means “father” somewhat figuratively on the physical,
biological level. However, Malachai is looking at this from the spiritual level
(whether the Hebrews at first understood this, I doubt). Yet, Malachai is but
taking the same view as found in Deuteronomy 32:6. Further, the widest
scope that Malachai is thinking in is the entire Hebrew people, and not all
humanity.

The next clause in this verse is “Didn’t one God create us all?” Again, he is
speaking of the Hebrew community… really, at this point, reduced to all
Israel…and is not being inclusive of gentiles. The Hebrew word used for one is
echad. Echad can have a wide range of meanings and uses. But of them all,
which is meant here? Is it speaking of God’s substance? Is it meaning Israel’s

Lesson 7 – Malachi Chapter 2 Continued
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only God? Is it speaking of God as being the only god in existence? Echad as
used here is an adjective that relates to the term “father”. Thus, the idea is
that Israel owes its entire existence to but one source: Yehoveh. And since
every member of the community is Israel, they all equally share in this
common source of their existence. Even more (although the words aren’t here)
it was thoroughly understood as common knowledge to the people that it is
the covenant that binds God to Israel. Israel’s entire identity is due to, and
rests in, their common father… Yehoveh.

Now that Malachai has led his listeners to agree that they all come from the
same source, and are subject to the same duties, and will share the same fate,
he takes the next step and asks a really difficult, in your face, type of question
that is pretty damning merely in the asking of it. Then why do we break
faith with each other, profaning the covenant of our ancestors?

So, here is a statement that positively connects God as creator of the
Israelites (their father) with the covenant of their ancestors. We need to pause
to consider something that can fly under the radar, but I have no doubt is the
case. Malachai has picked some terms to use that clearly refer to the New
Covenant pronounced by Jeremiah. He refers to God as father and creator.
Remember; this thought is rare and unusual and not a normal part of Hebrew
thinking in this era. We find in Jeremiah 31:9 the reference to God as father,
and in Jeremiah 31:22 the reference to God as Creator. Part of what is being
addressed here by Malachai is a lingering disillusionment among the Jewish
returnees from Babylon. The New Covenant of Jeremiah, given a century
earlier, promised abundance and peace for Israel. This had not only not
happened, things were actually on a downward trend. The people had but 2
choices to determine why this prophecy of Jeremiah had not happened. 1) it
wasn’t time, yet. 2) This was a failed prophecy. And if this was failed, how
much confidence could they have in any past covenants, or in any prophetic
utterances, including Malachai’s? History indicates that the predominate belief
among the Jews was that the promises had failed and now they sit in limbo.
With that background, let’s continue.

How is it that the Jews are breaking faith with one another, and this
“breaking” is defined within the terms of the covenant? To be clear: here the

Lesson 7 – Malachi Chapter 2 Continued
12 / 15
covenant is a general term for all the covenants God made with the Hebrews,
but from a pragmatic viewpoint, it points mostly towards the Covenant of
Moses with its careful rules about how Hebrews are to deal with one another.
God had made Israel unique and set-apart from all other nations and peoples
on earth, and He did this through the instrument of covenant. But, despite the
great privilege that Israel had been granted, they are desecrating the
covenant through their unfaithfulness. At this point, exactly what the
unfaithfulness is we don’t know. That question gets answered in verse 11.

CJB
Malachi 2:11 Y'hudah has broken faith; an abomination has been
committed in Isra'el and Yerushalayim. For Y'hudah has profaned the
sanctuary of Yehoveh, which he loves, by marrying the daughter of a
foreign god.

Goodness; so much to talk about, here. First, this is more narrowly directed to
the restoration community of returned Jews. While it certainly can apply to all
Israel (and not just those Jews) just as it can apply to us, it seems as though
they have been singled out. Second, I don’t think Judah is the proper
translation. I think it ought to be Yehud… the name of the Persian province the
returning Judeans are living in. I think this because of what follows when the
terms Israel and Jerusalem are used.

All during the Persian Empire period, the term Yehud would represent the
returned community of Jewish exiles who had come to restore their land and
faith. Once the Persians finally lost their empire to the Greeks, then the Jewish
residents of that same territory were called something else. This group of Jews
have been accused of the highest level of sin against God. The Hebrew word is
to’ebah (or to’evah) that denotes something that is about as terrible as it
gets. As we look to the final clause of this verse, we find that the to’ebah
thing they did is intermarriage of Jews with the heathen. As we’ll soon see, the
matter of divorce becomes part and parcel with this indictment.

The use of the words Israel and Jerusalem are meant to convey location. Thus,
the meaning is that the Jews who are located in Israelite territory with
Jerusalem as its capital are the offenders. It is a way of reminding Jews that
they are still part of Israel, even though the other 10 tribes of Israel have

Lesson 7 – Malachi Chapter 2 Continued
13 / 15
been gone for around 250 years and had not returned to their land (which was
the northern kingdom of Ephraim/Israel that we read about earlier in the
Bible). And, that the covenant and its rules, laws, and obligations apply to all
Israelites no matter where they might be at the time, because the covenant
was made with all Israel and not just part of it.

By committing this abomination of the Hebrew men taking on heathen women,
they also profaned God’s holiness. The words we’ll look at right now are
qodesh Yehoveh . Literally, they mean “the holiness of Yehoveh”. Even so,
the term qodesh can refer to the Temple as a symbol of God’s holiness. It can
even be used to speak about anything that is holy to Yehoveh. It can also be
used to mean the character of Yehoveh (He is holy). So, which of these is the
intent? I think we can eliminate the idea that it is speaking of the Temple since
nothing in this passage would connect to that notion. Nor do I recognize any
object or icon or symbol that it might be speaking of, so I am left with the
choice of taking this phrase to speak of God’s nature and character of holiness
that is being offended.

The Covenant of Moses prohibits Hebrew men from marrying foreign women.
Now, this can be allowed if we attach the word “formerly” to the term “foreign
women”. The issue is that especially throughout the biblical era, a person that
belonged to a certain nation or people group automatically was dedicated to a
certain god or set of gods. Thus, for a Hebrew man to marry a woman who
was dedicated to a different god than Yehoveh, was committing spiritual
adultery. The exception would be if a women took the route of Ruth, in that
she denounced her former gods and dedicated herself to the Hebrew god.
From the standpoint of those ancient times, she had given up one nationality
and identity for another, and in God’s view she was no longer a foreigner.

What we need to remember is that this disputation is directed primarily at the
priests. Yes, the priesthood led the way in this practice of marrying foreign
heathen women. What would have been their motivation for doing such a
thing? Studies from the last couple of decades seem to indicate no evidence
for rampant idolatry happening in Yehud. So, what drove the priests (and then
the Jewish population at large) to indulge in such an affair? Considering the
bad economic situation of Yehud at this time, very likely the reasons were to

Lesson 7 – Malachi Chapter 2 Continued
14 / 15
marry into some money. So, religious concerns were set aside in order to
satisfy the need for better living conditions. As concerns the priests, since
tithes and offerings were their only source of income, then with the poor
economics of those who were to give in consideration, it is easy to see how the
amount of tithes and offerings the priests would have received to divide up
amongst themselves, would have decreased and put a strain on their home
lives.

All this together means that since Yehoveh has loved His people like they were
a wife in a marriage, then for the men to commit adultery by marrying foreign
women, Yehoveh has no choice but to judge Yehud as guilty of adultery to
God, and punish them.

CJB
Deuteronomy 7:3 Don't intermarry with them - don't give your
daughter to his son, and don't take his daughter for your son.

Let’s be clear: despite the regular commentaries that appear on this passage,
and characterize this as God banning interracial marriage, that is not correct.
It is an intellectually dishonest interpretation to think of it in this way. Never in
the Bible does skin color or ethnicity play a role in marriage. The entire issue is
over who the two parties in marriage worship as their god. Back in the ancient
times, the ban on intermarriage was to be as a protection against importing
idolatry into Israel. And, truly, it should be looked at as no differently in the
21
st
century. I have had too many conversations with distraught husbands or
wives whose spouses were either atheists, agnostics, or believed in another
religion and another god. Usually, they knew this prior to marriage. But,
something happened along the way in which the God -fearing partner suddenly
realized the importance of their faith, and now they were in a fix. Thus, when
we get to the New Testament, we find a number of cautions about a Believer
in Yeshua marrying a non-Believer, even if that non-Believer believes in the
God of Israel. It doesn’t forbid it, but it makes it clear that real trouble, and
likely heartache, lay ahead more likely than not.

The issue of mixed marriages was not new in Malachai’s era. We read about
that in excerpts from many years earlier during Ezrah’s time, and also

Lesson 7 – Malachi Chapter 2 Continued
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Nehemiah deals with it. We’ll pause here and continue with Malachai chapter
2, next time.