Bible Strands
Malachi 2:11
Judah has broken faith; an abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem. For Judah has profaned the LORD’s beloved sanctuary by marrying the daughter of a foreign god.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The prophet addresses post-exilic Judah and Jerusalem, confronting a moment when covenant loyalty is being dismantled through intermarriage with foreign worshippers.
The words — The text highlights בָּגְדָה (ba.ge.Dah), meaning "it has acted treacherously," and חִלֵּל (chi.Lel), meaning "it has profaned," to describe the breach of sacred boundaries.
The thread — This warning against covenant compromise through foreign alliances echoes in Ezra 9:1 and 2 Corinthians 6:14, while its foundation rests on the covenant obedience demanded in Exodus 19:5.
Why it lands — The passage demands exclusive allegiance to Yahweh, showing that ritual offerings cannot legitimize a broken covenant and that faithfulness requires separating from idolatrous partnerships.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Judah hath dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah hath profaned the holiness of the Lord which he loved, and hath married the daughter of a strange god.
Cross-references
- 2 Corinthians 6:14 Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership can righteousness have with wickedness? Or what fellowship does light have with darkness?
- Ezra 9:1 After these things had been accomplished, the leaders approached me and said, “The people of Israel, including the priests and Levites, have not kept themselves separate from the surrounding peoples whose abominations are like those of the Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Jebusites, Ammonites, Moabites, Egyptians, and Amorites.
- Exodus 19:5 Now if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, you will be My treasured possession out of all the nations—for the whole earth is Mine.
- Leviticus 20:26 You are to be holy to Me because I, the LORD, am holy, and I have set you apart from the nations to be My own.
- Deuteronomy 7:3 Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons,
- 1 Kings 11:1 King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh—women of Moab, Ammon, Edom, and Sidon, as well as Hittite women.
- Nehemiah 13:23 In those days I also saw Jews who had married women from Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab.
- Psalms 106:34 They did not destroy the peoples as the LORD had commanded them,
- Revelation 21:8 But to the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and sexually immoral and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their place will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur. This is the second death.”
- Genesis 6:1 Now when men began to multiply on the face of the earth and daughters were born to them,