Episode 872: Marriage, Covenant, and the Temple (Malachi 2:13–16)

Picking up at Malachi 2:13, Peter Leithart, Jeff Meyers, Alastair Roberts, and James Bejon turn to Yahweh's second charge against Judah in this section: the treacherous dismissal of the wives of their youth. The conversation traces the double register of the passage (the covenant of individual marriage and Yahweh's own bridal relationship with Israel and his sanctuary) and asks whether the same typological layering found in verses 10–12 continues here. Considerable attention falls on the notoriously difficult verse 15, with James Bejon guiding the group through the Hebrew: the one father who makes husband and wife one, the remnant of the spirit, and the seeking of godly (zera' Elohim) seed. The discussion moves into the imagery of the garment covered in violence in verse 16, and closes with a debate over the ESV's departure from the traditional "I hate divorce" rendering — the group lands in agreement that the third-person reading ("the man who hates and divorces") is both textually defensible and theologically clarifying. GIVE TO THEOPOLIS! theopolisinstitute.com/give/ Get the Theopolis App! app.theopolisinstitute.com/menu Use Code "theopolitan" to get your first month free! Sign up for In Medias Res mailchi.mp/0b01d726f2fe/inmediasres