Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Michael Abernathy" <mabernathy AT isot.com>]

Malachi 2:16
KIY-&FNA) $ALAX  )FMAR YHWFH ):ELOH"Y YI&RF)L WKSFH (AL-LBW$O 

&FNA) is a 3rd person verb.
Is there any reason to interpret  &FNA) to refer to the Lord's hatred as 
opposed to a third party?
Are there any valid reasons for interpretting  $ALAX  as a masculine 
imperative?
Sincerely, 
Michael Abernathy
>From jsprinkle AT crossroadscollege.edu  Sun Aug 31 20:12:37 2003
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From: "Dr. Joe Sprinkle" <jsprinkle AT crossroadscollege.edu>
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Subject: [b-hebrew] Re: Malachi 2:16
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Most translations render Malachi 3:16 something like "`I hate divorce,' says
the LORD God of Israel" (NIV; cf. RSV, NASB).  There is only one problem
with this condemnation of divorce per se in v. 16: it is very difficult,
perhaps impossible, rendering the Masoretic Text.  To retain it one would
seemly need to resort to conjectural emendation.  However this seems to be
without any manuscript support. (On the text see C. J. Collins, "The
(Intelligible) Masoretic Text of Malachi 2:16 or, How Does God feel about
Divorce," Presbyterion 20/1 (1994) 36-40. The Qumran copy of this verse,
though it varies from the MT, does not support the common emendation.  Cf.
R. Fuller, "Text Critical Problems in Malachi 2:10-16," JBL 110/1 (1991)
47-57. Fuller accepts the MT as the closest to the original. )

The MT reads literally "ki [a particle with a wide variety of senses] he
[third person, not first person] hated/hates (sane`), sending away (sallah),
says the LORD." It is not grammatically impossible to render the verse as a
command to divorce.  Hence some manuscripts of the LXX renders, "If you hate
your wife, put her away" which takes the form sallah as an imperative rather
than an infinitive construct.  However, the LXX rendering of sallah as a
command hardly fits the context where the divorcing of Jewish wives has
already been condemned, and where the second half of the verse again
expresses a note of disapproval of these divorces.

If we keep the MT, I would like to render it something like, "When he hates
so as to divorce, says the LORD God of Israel, then he covers himself with
lawlessness as with a garment." Hugenberger (Marriage as Covenant 72-76)
independently came to a very similar rendering, "If one hates and divorces."
He takes the infinitive construct sallah to be the equivalent of a finite
verb, perhaps as a bi-form of the infinitive absolute, whereas I take the
infinitive to be a result clause.

The first expression "he hates" may relate to the divorce formula.  In the
Jewish divorce certificate of 5th century Elephantine, Egypt, the divorce
formula was "I hate my wife" or "I hate my husband" (see below).  There is
no need to emend the text.

Joe