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, 1 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; 1 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 commentary entries containing this verse:
Malachi 2:11
Malachi 3:5
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