John Calvin Commentary Malachi 2:16

"For I hate putting away, saith Jehovah, the God of Israel, and him that covereth his garment with violence, saith Jehovah of hosts: therefore take heed to your spirit, that ye deal not treacherously." — Malachi 2:16 (ASV)

Here again the Prophet exaggerates the crime which the priests regarded as nothing, for he says that they sinned more grievously than if they had divorced their wives. We indeed know that divorce, properly speaking, had never been allowed by God; for though it was not punished under the law, it was not permitted.

This situation was similar to that of a magistrate who is compelled to tolerate many things he does not approve, because we cannot deal with humankind in such a way as to restrain all vices. While it is indeed desirable that no vice should be tolerated, we must consider what is possible.

Therefore, Moses specified no punishment corresponding to the seriousness of the crime if a man divorced his wife; and yet, divorce was never truly permitted by God.

But if a comparison is made, Malachi says that it is a lighter crime to divorce a wife than to marry many wives. From this we learn how abominable polygamy is in the sight of God. I do not consider polygamy to be what the Papists, in their foolishness, have made it, who do not call those polygamists who have many wives at the same time, but those who marry another after the first one has died.

This is gross ignorance. Polygamy, properly speaking, is when a person takes many wives, as was commonly done in the East. Those nations, we know, have always been lustful and have never observed the marriage vow.

Because their lasciviousness was so great that they were like brute beasts, each man married several wives; and this abuse continues to this day among the Turks, Persians, and other nations.

Here, however, where God compares polygamy with divorce, He says that polygamy is the worse and more detestable crime. For the husband impurely connects himself with another woman and then not only acts unfaithfully towards his wife to whom he is bound but also forcibly keeps her, thus doubling his crime.

If he replies that he still keeps the wife to whom he is bound, he is nevertheless an adulterer with respect to the second wife. In this way, he mixes, as they say, sacred things with profane.

Then, to adultery and lasciviousness, he adds cruelty, for he holds under his authority a miserable woman who would prefer death to such a situation. We know what power jealousy has over women.

And when anyone introduces a harlot into the home, how can a lawful wife bear such an indignity without being miserably tormented?

This then is the reason why the Prophet now says, If you hate, dismiss—not that he grants permission for divorce, as we have said, but that he might by this circumstance emphasize the crime. And for this reason he adds, For he covers with a cloak his violence.

Some interpreters understand "violence" here as spoil or prey, thinking that the wife is referred to in this way—she who is tyrannically compelled to remain with an adulterer, while she sees a harlot in her house, by whom she is driven from her conjugal bed. But this interpretation is too forced and too far from the literal meaning of the text.

The Prophet here, I do not doubt, strips from the Jews their false mask, because they thought that they could cover up their vice by retaining their first wives.

"What else is this," he says, "but to cover your violence with a cloak, or at least to excuse it? For you do not openly show it. But God is not deceived, nor can His eye be dazzled by such a disguise."

So, though your iniquity is covered by a cloak, it is not hidden from God. Indeed, it is thereby doubled because you exercise your cruelty at home.

For it would be better for robbers to remain in the woods and kill strangers there, than to entice guests to their houses and kill them there, plundering them under the pretext of hospitality.

This is how you act; for you destroy the bond of marriage, and you afterwards deceive your miserable wives, and yet you force them by your tyranny to remain in your houses, and thus you torment your miserable wives, who could have enjoyed their freedom if divorce had been granted to them.

He concludes again with these words, Watch over your spirit; that is, "Take heed, for this is an intolerable wickedness before God, however you may try to lessen its seriousness."

Prayer:

Grant, Almighty God, that though we daily in various ways violate the covenant which You have been pleased to make with us in Your only-begotten Son, we may not yet be dealt with according to what our falling away, indeed, the many ways we fall away by which we daily provoke Your wrath against us, do fully deserve. But be patient and bear with us kindly, and at the same time strengthen us so that we may persevere in the truth and fulfill to the end the pledge we have given to You, and which You might require from us in our baptism. And grant that we may each of us so conduct ourselves towards our fellow believers, and husbands towards their wives, that we may cherish that unity of spirit which You have consecrated between us by the blood of Your own Son. — Amen.