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Malachi 2:15

in Malachi 2

Has not the LORD made them one, having a portion of the Spirit? And why one? Because He seeks godly offspring. So guard yourselves in your spirit and do not break faith with the wife of your youth.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV

ASV

And did he not make one, although he had the residue of the Spirit? And wherefore one? He sought a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.

KJV

And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit. And wherefore one? That he might seek a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.

This verse in Malachi 2

Commentary

9 notes on this verse

A commentator

Jerome

Commentary on Malachi · Written before 420.

(v. 13 ff.) And you have done this again, covering the altar of the Lord with tears, weeping and groaning, so that I will no longer look upon your sacrifices or accept anything pleasing from your hands. Yet you ask, 'Why?' Because the Lord has been witness between you and the wife of your youth, whom you have despised, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant. Did not one God create us all? Did not one God give us life and breath? And what does one seek, except the seed of God?

This site's exposition

And did not he make one

on Malachi 2:15-16

Did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit is among the most disputed sentences in the Twelve, and the bench divides over its exact sense: some read it of Adam and Eve, one flesh made from one pair though the Lord had spirit enough to make many, in order that he might seek a godly seed from a stable home; others connect it to Abraham, one man richly endowed yet seeking godly offspring through Isaac rather than through a plurality of wives. Verse 16 carries its own translation crux, rendered by the King James as the Lord that hateth putting away, and by other readings as a warning that the man who divorces covers his garment with violence, positions the commentators name without settling between them. What both readings agree on is the conclusion, therefore take heed to your spirit, that ye deal not treacherously, marital faithfulness required regardless of which grammatical path leads there.

The record, by era

The Church Fathers1 voice

A commentator

Tertullian

AGAINST MARCION 4.34 · Written before 220.

For in the Gospel of Matthew he says, "Whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causes her to commit adultery." He also is deemed equally guilty of adultery who marries a woman put away by her husband. The Creator, however, except on account of adultery, does not put asunder that which he himself joined together, the same Moses in another passage enacting that he who had married after violence to a damsel should thenceforth not have it in his power to put away his wife.

The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

They did not perform their promises to them, but defrauded them of their maintenance or dower, or took in concubines, to share in the affection that was due to their wives only. [3.] They put them away, gave them a bill of divorce, and turned them off, nay, perhaps they did it without the ceremony that the law of Moses prescribed,

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

And wherefore did he make but one woman for one man? It was that he might seek a godly seed -- a seed of God (so the word is), a seed that should bear the image of God, be employed in the service of God, and be devoted to his glory and honour,--that every man having his own wife, and but one, according to the law, ( 1 Cor. vii.

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens

And did not he make one?....

The Nineteenth Century1 voice

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

proposed

And wherefore (that is, why then did He thus isolate us as) the one (people; the Hebrew is 'the one')? In order that He might seek a godly seed"; that is, that He might have "a seed of God," a nation the repository of the covenant, and the stock of the Messiah, and the witness for the one God amidst the surrounding polytheisms.

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — odd-straight-quotes

2 more voices on this verse

The Nineteenth Century2 voices

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

proposed

And did not he make one? - One of each kind, Adam and Eve. Yet had he the residue of the Spirit, he could have made millions of pairs, and inspired them all with living souls. Then wherefore one? He made one pair from whom all the rest might proceed, that he might have a holy offspring; that children being a marked property of one man and one woman, proper care might be taken that they should be brought up in the discipline of the Lord. Perhaps the holy or godly seed, זרע אלהים zera Elohim, a seed of God, may refer to the Messiah. God would have the whole human race to spring from one pair, that Christ, springing from the same family, might in his sufferings taste death for every man; because he had that nature that was common to the whole human race. Had there been several heads of families in the beginning, Jesus must have been incarnated from each of those heads, else his death could have availed for those only who belonged to the family of which he was incarnated. Take heed to your spirit - Scrutinize the motives which induce you to put away your wives.
And did not He - , God, of whom he had spoken as the witness between man and his wife, “make one,” namely, Adam first, to mark the oneness of marriage and make it a law of nature, appointing “that out of man (created in His own image and similitude), woman should take her beginning, and, knitting them together, did teach that it should never be lawful to put asunder those, whom He by matrimony had made one?” “Between those two, and consequently between all other married, to be born from them, He willed that there should be one indivisible union, for Adam could be married to no other save Eve, since no other had been created by God, nor could Eve turn to any other man than Adam, since there was no other in the world. ‘Infringe not then this sanction of God, and unity of marriage, and degenerate not from your first parents, Adam and Eve.’” “If divorce had been good, Jesus says, God would not have made one man and one woman, but, having made one Adam, would have made two women, had He meant that he should cast out the one, bring in the other; but now by the mode of creation, He brought in this law, that each should have, throughout, the wife which he had from the beginning. This law is older than that about divorce, as much as Adam is older than Moses.” Yet had he the residue of the spirit - Gen 2:7, “the breath of life, which He breathed into Adam, and man became a living soul.” All the souls, which God would ever create, are His, and He could have called them into being at once. Yet in order to designate the unity of marriage, He willed to create but one. So our Lord argues against divorce Mat 19:4-6, “Have ye not read, that He which made them at the beginning, made them male and female?” They both together are called “one man” Gen 1:27, and, therefore, should be of one mind and spirit also, the unity of which they ought faithfully to preserve. And wherefore one? […]

The words behind it

17 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • וְלֹא־and not

    velo'-H38085168 times

  • אֶחָ֣דone

    ʾechadH259971 times

  • עָשָׂ֗הhe made

    ʾasahH62132628 times

  • וּשְׁאָ֥רand a remnant of

    ushearH7605

  • ר֙וּחַ֙spirit

    ruachH7307378 times

  • ל֔וֹto him

    lo

  • וּמָה֙and what?

    umahH4100752 times

  • הָֽאֶחָ֔ד[was] the one

    haechadH259971 times

  • מְבַקֵּ֖שׁseeking

    mevakeshH1245225 times

  • זֶ֣רַעoffspring of

    zera'H2233

  • אֱלֹהִ֑יםGod

    ʾelohimH4302601 times

  • וְנִשְׁמַרְתֶּם֙and you will take heed

    venishmartemH8104468 times

  • בְּר֣וּחֲכֶ֔םin spirit your

    beruchakhemH7307378 times

  • וּבְאֵ֥שֶׁתand with [the] wife of

    uveeshetH802781 times

  • נְעוּרֶ֖יךָyouth<s> your

    neureikhaH5271

  • אַל־may not

    ʾal-H408

  • יִבְגֹּֽד׃anyone deal treacherously

    yivgodH89849 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Genesis 1:27

    So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

    it leads to

    • Matthew 19:4

      Jesus answered, “Have you not read that from the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’

    • Ephesians 2:10

      For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance as our way of life.

    • Genesis 5:1–2

      This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, He made him in His own likeness.

    • Mark 10:6

      However, from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’

    • Genesis 2:21–25

      So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep, and while he slept, He took one of the man’s ribs and closed up the area with flesh.

  • Through

    Malachi 2:14

    Yet you ask, “Why?” It is because the LORD has been a witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have broken faith, though she is your companion and your…

    it leads to

    • Isaiah 54:6

      For the LORD has called you back, like a wife deserted and wounded in spirit, like the rejected wife of one’s youth,” says your God.

    • Ecclesiastes 9:9

      Enjoy life with your beloved wife all the days of the fleeting life that God has given you under the sun—all your fleeting days. For this is your portion in life and in your…

    • Genesis 31:50

      If you mistreat my daughters or take other wives, although no one is with us, remember that God is a witness between you and me.”

Where this verse is studied

On this page

About Malachi

Ezra Reads the Law to the People, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
Ezra Reads the Law to the People, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
This page draws on 9 works. Open the list of works

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Carl Friedrich Keil, The Twelve Minor Prophets; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Malachi; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Tertullian, AGAINST MARCION 4.34.