Who hates divorce?

I'm sure God hates divorce and I'm sure that the ESV translators believe God does, but they believe that the Hebrew text of Malachi 2:16 does not support a translation wording that God hates divorce. In an interesting blog post ESV Old Testament Chairman C. John Collins explains why the ESV team revised the RSV wording of:

“For I hate divorce, says the LORD the God of Israel, and covering one’s garment with violence, says the LORD of hosts. So take heed to yourselves and do not be faithless.”

to the ESV wording:

“For the man who hates and divorces, 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.”

The evidence given by Dr. Collins for the exegetical choice made by the ESV team in this verse seems strong to me, but there is also strong evidence for the traditional wording. This is one place where the ESV team decided to make a choice different from a traditional rendering, when there is a lack of consensus among biblical exegetes. Fortunately, there is a footnote in the ESV which shows that there is not total certainty about what was written and meant by the original author:

Probable meaning (compare Septuagint and Deuteronomy 24:1-4); or For the LORD, the God of Israel, says that he hates divorce, and his who covers

The ESV team may be right in the exegetical choice they have made here, although their choice is by far in the minority among Bible versions, including recent ones. The REB and HCSB are the only other versions I have found so far that make the same exegetical choice as the ESV. Here is the REB translation:

If a man divorces or puts away his wife, says the LORD God of Israel, he overwhelms her with cruelty, says the LORD of Hosts. Keep watch on your spirit, and do not be unfaithful.

The HCSB wording is:

"If he hates and divorces [his wife]," says the LORD God of Israel, "he covers his garment with injustice," says the LORD of hosts. Therefore, watch yourselves carefully, and do not treacherously.

The HCSB includes a footnote about the exegetical issue at hand:

Or The LORD God of Israel says that He hates divorce and the one who

The NET Bible words Malachi 2:16 in accord with exegetical tradition as:

“I hate divorce,” says the Lord God of Israel, “and the one who is guilty of violence,” says the sovereign Lord. “Pay attention to your conscience, and do not be unfaithful.”

And it footnotes the word "divorce" detailing the evidence that leads to the traditional rendering in the NET and also to the non-traditional wording in the ESV:

The verb an}c* (sane’) appears to be a third person form, “he hates,” which makes little sense in the context, unless one emends the following word to a third person verb as well. Then one might translate, “he [who] hates [his wife] [and] divorces her…is guilty of violence.” A similar translation is advocated by M. A. Shields, “Syncretism and Divorce in Malachi 2,10-16,” ZAW 111 (1999): 81-85. However, it is possible that the first person pronoun yk!n{a* (’anokhi, “I”) has accidentally dropped from the text after yK! (ki). If one restores the pronoun, the form an}c* can be taken as a participle and the text translated, “for I hate.”

I am thankful for translators like those of the ESV, NET Bible (in other passages), and other recent Bibles who are willing to break with traditional exegesis of some verses for the sake of what they believe to be increased accuracy in translation.

Categories: ESV, HCSB, NET Bible, REB, Bible translation, Hebrew, exegesis, textual criticism