Leviticus 21 makes the first reference to divorce in the Bible, and Deuteronomy 24 explains how the law of Moses actually restricted divorce, making it more difficult and therefore less likely than in the cultures which surrounded Israel in Canaan. But neither of these passages explicitly states God’s view of divorce. For that we turn to Malachi 2
Actually, Malachi deals with two separate issues on the subject of marriage. The first is found in v.10-12:
Don’t we all have one father? Hasn’t one God created us? Why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, profaning the covenant of our fathers? Judah has dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah has profaned the holiness of Yahweh which he loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god. Yahweh will cut off, to the man who does this, him who wakes and him who answers, out of the tents of Jacob, and him who offers an offering to Yahweh of Armies.
Malachi 2:10-12
At this late hour in the history of Israel, the people had violated the commandment of God from Exodus 34:12-16 which prohibited them from marrying anyone who worshiped a false god. The Lord warned them while they were still in the wilderness that such marriages would have the tendency to distract them from worshiping Yahweh and would lead them into idolatry. For this reason, the Lord makes a dire threat through the prophet Malachi, saying that he will cut off the man who profanes the covenant by marrying a foreign woman and then daring to try to make an offering to the Lord.
The historical books also give evidence of this sin in Israel during the period of the return from exile. Ezra 9:2 states, “For they have taken of their daughters for themselves and for their sons, so that the holy seed have mixed themselves with the peoples of the lands. Yes, the hand of the princes and rulers has been chief in this trespass.” Not only had the people intermarried with the pagans, but their princes had led the way! Ezra’s response is telling: “When I heard this thing, I tore my garment and my robe, and plucked off the hair of my head and of my beard, and sat down confounded” (v.3), and he prayed, “My God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to you, my God; for our iniquities have increased over our head, and our guiltiness has grown up to the heavens” (v.6). Clearly, this was a serious sin on the part of the Israelites. After praying and weeping and confessing their sins, Ezra was joined by the people and they wept bitterly over their sin.
This sign of heartfelt repentance must have encouraged Ezra, because he spoke to the people and offered them a solution: “Now therefore let us make a covenant with our God to put away all the wives, and such as are born of them, according to the counsel of my lord, and of those who tremble at the commandment of our God. Let it be done according to the law” (10:3). The priest of the Lord actually told the people to divorce their foreign wives and put away from them any children born to these marriages. Over the course of the next two months, the children of Israel followed Ezra’s instructions and put away their foreign wives, purging themselves from their pagan influence among the people of God.
Unfortunately, this was not an isolated incident. A couple of decades later, the people of Judah, under the direction of Nehemiah, committed in writing that they would not marry foreign women (Neh. 10:28-30). Shortly afterward, Nehemiah was compelled to return to Persia to once again serve under King Artaxerxes. When he returned to Judah, he discovered that the high priest had allowed a foreigner to move into a room in the temple (13:4-9), Jewish officials had allowed the temple to fall into disrepair (v.10-14), some of the people were working on the Sabbath (v.15-22), and many of the men of Judah had violated their oath and married foreign women. As a result, their children could not speak in the Hebrew tongue, but spoke the languages of their foreign mothers (v.23-28). Nehemiah’s response was no less forceful than Ezra’s had been: “I contended with them, and cursed them, and struck certain of them, and plucked off their hair, and made them swear by God, “You shall not give your daughters to their sons, nor take their daughters for your sons, or for yourselves” (v.25). He reminded them that Solomon, though he was beloved by God, was led into sin by his love of foreign women. Even the son of the high priest had married a foreigner and violated the direct command of God (Lev. 21:7,13-15)! Their failure required Nehemiah to purge all foreigners from among the people of Judah, just as Ezra had done before.
It seems that God was so opposed to the children of Israel intermarrying with the pagan peoples that he would rather they divorce their wives than continue to jeopardize their covenant with him. It’s no wonder that Malachi warns the people of his day that God will cut them off, i.e. destroy them, if they persisted in their sin by marrying outside of the covenant people. But what about the second issue in Malachi 2, the subject of divorce? You won’t find a more strident statement than Malachi 2:16, “For I hate divorce”, says Yahweh, the God of Israel.” How can we reconcile God’s apparent hatred of divorce with the instructions from both Ezra and Nehemiah that the people separate themselves from their foreign wives? That is the question we will address next.