Jehovah does not view lightly those who show disregard for the marital arrangement. Contrary to God’s law, the men of Judah have taken foreign wives. (Deuteronomy 7:3, 4) They have dealt treacherously with the wives of their youth by divorcing them. Jehovah “has hated a divorcing,” Malachi warns.​—2:10-17.

2:13​—Many Jewish husbands were divorcing the wives of their youth, perhaps in order to marry younger pagan women. The altar of Jehovah became covered with tears​—evidently those of the rejected wives who came to the sanctuary to pour out their grief before God.​—Malachi 2:11, 14, 16.