Think Wink.

Laying in bed this morning I couldn’t sleep so I decided to write up the second part of my discussion of Malachi’s use of the Hebrew word sane’ (μισέω in the LXX) and whether or not it means “loved less” or actually refers to an intense hostility toward something or someone out of fear or anger. In the previous post, I argued from the Psalms (chiefly Psalm 45:7) that God really does have intense hostility toward wicked people. It is his character to show that hatred toward wickedness, and thus toward wicked people (Psalm 11:5; 5:5). Thus in Malachi 1:3 where God is said to “hate” Esau, who is a wicked people that God is angry (which is part of the definition of hate) with forever and has laid waste to their nation and will not let them rebuild, he really means hate. In this post, I want to examine how Malachi uses sane’/μισέω and his understanding of the term. For I do admit that Malachi’s prophecy was written several hundred years after many of the Psalms and other Old Testament books. The word’s meaning may have changed.

sane’ occurs only one other time in Malachi, Malachi 2:16 (μισέω also occurs in Malachi 2:13 LXX [RE:Greek doesn't have LXX up right now, sorry]). However there is some debate as to what is the pronoun that functions as the subject of sane’ in Malachi 2:16. There are two main ways this text is rendered: “‘For I hate divorce,’ ays the LORD, the God of Israel, ‘and him who covers his garment with wrong,’ says the LORD of hosts. ‘So take heed to your spirit, that you do not deal treacherously’” (Malachi 2:16 NASB; see also NLT, NKJV, TNIV). The other way of rendering Malachi 2:16 is how the ESV and HCSB render it, “For the man who does not love his wife but divorces her, says the LORD, the God of Israel, covers his garment with violence, says the LORD of hosts. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and do not be faithless” (Malachi 2:16 ESV; both the ESV and HCSB footnote the forementioned rendering).

Now in both cases, the meaning of the passage is clear. In Malachi 2:10-16 is speaking of marrying and divorcing for personal gain and not the reason why God had ordained the marital covenant. In 2:11 the prophet speaks of being “married [to] the daughter of a foreign god.” This seems to refer to marrying outside the covenant people with Moabite women and their god Chemash. Malachi 2:12 offers a stern reprimand for the man who does this, that he be cut off from the covenant people of “Jacob” or Israel. But Malachi’s charge against the people is not finished. In Malachi 2:13 we read, “And this second thing you do. You cover the Lord’s altar with tears, with weeping and groaning because he no longer regards the offering or accepts it with favor from your hand.” God no longer accepts the offerings of the people of Judea. Malachi 2:14 asks the question of why. We read in Malachi 2:14 the answer, “Because the Lord was witness between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant.” The Israelite men have been unfaithful to “the wife of your youth.” They have not been faithful to their covenant with their wife. Malachi continues in 2:15, “Did he not make them one, with a portion of the Spirit in their union? And what was the one God (lit. the one) seeking? Godly offspring. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and let none of you be faithless to the wife of your youth.” Some see a veiled reference to Abraham and Hagar in this verse. If so, the point would be not to seek children by circumventing God’s plans, namely the promised child through Sarah. That this text points to Abraham, Hagar, and Sarah seems a bit of a stretch, but the point does still stand. God will provide children in his own time. These men seem to marry one woman and divorce her if she did not bear him children. Children were a sign of God’s blessing and a sign of status (cf. Psalm 127:3-7). Thus the marriages were for self-gain, not the God-ordained purpose of marriage, to raise “Godly seed.” Hence when we come to Malachi 2:16, either translation works to communicate the ban on divorce. The first option is more forceful, Yahweh hates divorce. The second says the same thing, only with less force, don’t hate your wife and divorce her for that is covering your garment with violence! To hate and divorce is to violence in the eyes of God. It seems to not only be a form of adultery to Jesus, but murder as well.

Now for the meaning of sane’. If we take the first option found in the NASB, NKJV/KJV, NLT, NIV/TNIV, the meaning of sane’ follows that of the one discussed in part one of this series, intense hostility due to anger. God is angered by divorce and he is hostile towards divorce. In light of this rendering, we could not say that “God loves divorce less,” for that would destroy the force of the reading. The point that Yahweh is making through Malachi is that he does not want his people to engage in the activity of divorce! Yet to render sane’ as “love less” would put the okay upon this destruction action. No hate means hate in this text if we follow this rendering of sane’.

Do we follow the rendering of the ESV and HCSB? I think there is good reason to do so. Notice one theme in Malachi 2:13-16, faithlessness to the marriage covenant. The men made a covenant with their wives before Yahweh as their witness. Divorcing their wives in seeking children for their own personal gain is viewed as covenant unfaithfulness. Malachi 2:16, according to the ESV and HCSB, puts hating and divorcing on the same plane. They are the same action, so to speak. Both are seen in this rendering as rejecting the wife for her barrenness. One is from the affections, the other is in legal action. One stems and flows from the other, divorce flows from hate. Thus sane’ takes on covenantal meaning in Malachi. To hate is to reject the covenant, or even a person for a covenant relationship.

Does this translate into Malachi 1:2-3 and “Jacob I have loved, and Esau I have hated”? The NET translation seems to render sane’ and ‘ahab this way, “Yet I chose Jacob and rejected Esau.” The NET is most notable for its translation notes and here is the note on Malachi 1:2-3 and this sentence, “tn Heb “and I loved Jacob, but Esau I hated.” The context indicates this is technical covenant vocabulary in which “love” and “hate” are synonymous with “choose” and “reject” respectively (see Deuteronomy 7:8; Jeremiah 31:3; Hosea 3:1; Hosea 9:15; Hosea 11:1).” There seems to be good evidence to see Malachi as understanding sane’ as a covenant term of rejection as much as intense hostility due to anger.

In the final post, I want to come back to Romans 9:13 and see if either one of these possibilities fits his understanding and argument for Romans 9:6 as to why the Jews are anathema in Romans 9:3.

“Loved More/Loved Less” Vs. “Loved/Hated”

sane’, Malachi, and Paul Pt 1

sane’, Malachi, and Paul Pt 3