The Wife of Your Youth
13 “This again you do: you cover Yahweh’s altar with tears, with weeping, and with sighing, because he doesn’t regard the offering any more, neither receives it with good will at your hand. 14 Yet you say, ‘Why?’ Because Yahweh has been witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have dealt treacherously, though she is your companion and the wife of your covenant. 15 Did he not make you one, although he had the residue of the Spirit? Why one? He sought godly offspring. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let no one deal treacherously against the wife of his youth. 16 One who hates and divorces”, says Yahweh, the God of Israel, “covers his garment with violence!” says Yahweh of Armies. “Therefore pay attention to your spirit, that you don’t be unfaithful.
The altar is wet with the tears of men who cannot understand why God ignores them, and the reason is standing at home.
This again you do: you cover Yahweh's altar with tears, weeping because the offering is not regarded. The picture is of genuine religious distress, and the objection is a single word — why?
The answer names a witness. Yahweh has been witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have dealt treacherously — the same verb as the previous paragraph — though she is your companion and the wife of your covenant. Marriage is described as a covenant with God as its witness, which is what makes its breach a matter he takes personally.
Verse 15 gives the reason behind the design: he sought godly offspring. The concern is not merely the wronged wife but the children who will be formed in whatever the household becomes. And the paragraph ends where it began, with the spirit: take heed to your spirit, and do not deal treacherously. A man's inner life is treated as the thing that either keeps or breaks his word.
settled What this mark means