divine response to it is. And we find no better description in the Bible of the value of marriage either. Malachi’s ministry overlapped on this message with those of Ezra and Nehemiah, but he alone focused on the pain all this caused, and he alone announced simply that God hates divorce. In 454 BC Ezra discovered that many of the people, especially priests and Levites, had married foreign women and mingled the holy race with pagans (9:2). He was appalled; and after his initial response he prayed,