Commentaries:
Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown
putting away—that is, divorce.
for one covereth violence with . . . garment—MAURER translates, "And (Jehovah hateth him who) covereth his garment (that is, his wife, in Arabic idiom; compare Genesis 20:16, 'He is to thee a covering of thy eyes'; the husband was so to the wife, and the wife to the husband; also Deuteronomy 22:30; Ruth 3:9; Ezekiel 16:8) with injury." The Hebrew favors "garment," being accusative of the thing covered. Compare with English Version, Psalms 73:6, "violence covereth them as a garment." Their "violence" is the putting away of their wives; the "garment" with which they try to cover it is the plea of Moses' permission (Deuteronomy 24:1; compare Matthew 19:6-9).
Reproof of those who contracted marriages with foreigners and repudiated their Jewish wives.
Have we not all one father?—Why, seeing we all have one common origin, "do we deal treacherously against one another" ("His brother" being a general expression implying that all are "brethren" and sisters as children of the same Father above, I Thessalonians 4:3-6 and so including the wives so injured)? namely, by putting away our Jewish wives, and taking foreign women to wife (compare Malachi 2:14 and Malachi 2:11; Ezra 9:1-9), and so violating "the covenant" made by Jehovah with "our fathers," by which it was ordained that we should be a people separated from the other peoples of the world (Exodus 19:5; Leviticus 20:24, Leviticus 20:26; Deuteronomy 7:3). To intermarry with the heathen would defeat this purpose of Jehovah, who was the common Father of the Israelites in a peculiar sense in which He was not Father of the heathen. The "one Father" is Jehovah (Job 31:15; I Corinthians 8:6; Ephesians 4:6). "Created us": not merely physical creation, but "created us" to be His peculiar and chosen people (Psalms 102:18; Isaiah 43:1; Isaiah 45:8; Isaiah 60:21; Ephesians 2:10), [CALVIN]. How marked the contrast between the honor here done to the female sex, and the degradation to which Oriental women are generally subjected!
Other Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown entries containing Malachi 2:16:
Malachi 2:11
Malachi 3:5
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