Bible Strands
Malachi 2:17
You have wearied the LORD with your words; yet you ask, “How have we wearied Him?” By saying, “All who do evil are good in the sight of the LORD, and in them He delights,” or, “Where is the God of justice?”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The LORD speaks through the prophet Malachi to the post-exilic community of Israel immediately after condemning divorce and marital unfaithfulness. The declaration occurs during a prophetic dialogue where the people question God's justice and perceive His silence as indifference to their actions.
The words — The Hebrew verb הוֹגַעְתֶּם (ho.ga'.Tem) literally means "you have wearied" or "you have burdened," describing how the people's speech exhausts God. The phrase בְּדִבְרֵיכֶם (be./div.rei./Khem) specifies this exhaustion occurs "with your words" through their spoken claims.
The thread — The motif of exhausting God through ritual or speech appears in Isaiah 43:24, while the people's skepticism about delayed justice echoes Ecclesiastes 8:11. Later biblical writers identify this same pattern of questioning divine justice as the hallmark of scoffers in 2 Peter 3:3.
Why it lands — The text demands readers stop attributing divine indifference to their own careless speech or false theology. It requires immediate examination of how claims that "all who do evil are good in the sight of the LORD" actively obstruct the recognition of God's justice.
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
Ye have wearied the Lord with your words. Yet ye say, Wherein have we wearied him? When ye say, Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delighteth in them; or, Where is the God of judgment?
Cross-references
- Isaiah 43:24 You have not bought Me sweet cane with your silver, nor satisfied Me with the fat of your sacrifices. But you have burdened Me with your sins; you have wearied Me with your iniquities.
- 2 Peter 3:3 Most importantly, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires.
- Ecclesiastes 8:11 When the sentence for a crime is not speedily executed, the hearts of men become fully set on doing evil.
- Isaiah 5:18 Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of deceit and pull sin along with cart ropes,
- Isaiah 30:18 Therefore the LORD longs to be gracious to you; therefore He rises to show you compassion, for the LORD is a just God. Blessed are all who wait for Him.
- Zephaniah 1:12 And at that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps and punish the men settled in complacency, who say to themselves, ‘The LORD will do nothing, either good or bad.’
- 1 Samuel 2:3 Do not boast so proudly, or let arrogance come from your mouth, for the LORD is a God who knows, and by Him actions are weighed.
- Job 34:17 Could one who hates justice govern? Will you condemn the just and mighty One,
- Job 36:17 But now you are laden with the judgment due the wicked; judgment and justice have seized you.
- Psalms 73:3 For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.