Mal 2:10 | JFB | STEP | 10-16. Reproof of those who contracted marriages with foreigners and repudiated their Jewish wives. 10. Have we not all one father? —Why, seeing we all have one common origin, "do we deal treacherously against one another " ("His brother" being a general expression implying that all are "brethren" and sisters as children of the same Father above ( ), and so including the wives so injured)? namely, by putting away our Jewish wives, and taking foreign women to wife (compare ), and so violating "the covenant" made by Jehovah with "our fathers," by which it was ordained that we should be a people separated from the other peoples of the world ( ). To intermarry with the heathen would defeat this purpose of Jehovah, who was the common Father of the Israelites in a peculiar sense in which He was not Father of the heathen. The "one Father" is Jehovah ( ). "Created us": not merely physical creation, but "created us" to be His peculiar and chosen people ( ), [CALVIN ]. How marked the contrast between the honor here done to the female sex, and the degradation to which Oriental women are generally subjected!

Malachi 2:10

10-16. Reproof of those who contracted marriages with foreigners and repudiated their Jewish wives.

10. Have we not all one father?—Why, seeing we all have one common origin, "do we deal treacherously against one another" ("His brother" being a general expression implying that all are "brethren" and sisters as children of the same Father above (1Th 4:3-6), and so including the wives so injured)? namely, by putting away our Jewish wives, and taking foreign women to wife (compare Mal 2:14 and Mal 2:11; Ezr 9:1-9), and so violating "the covenant" made by Jehovah with "our fathers," by which it was ordained that we should be a people separated from the other peoples of the world (Ex 19:5; Le 20:24, 26; De 7:3). To intermarry with the heathen would defeat this purpose of Jehovah, who was the common Father of the Israelites in a peculiar sense in which He was not Father of the heathen. The "one Father" is Jehovah (Job 31:15; 1Co 8:6; Eph 4:6). "Created us": not merely physical creation, but "created us" to be His peculiar and chosen people (Ps 102:18; Isa 43:1; 45:8; 60:21; Eph 2:10), [CALVIN]. How marked the contrast between the honor here done to the female sex, and the degradation to which Oriental women are generally subjected!