Malachi 2:17
“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?”
King James Version (KJV)
Read this verse in context with translation switching:
Read Full Chapter →The people weary God by claiming that He approves of evildoers and by cynically asking where the God of justice is.
What Does Malachi 2:17 Mean?
The chapter ends with a charge that the people have 'wearied the LORD' with their words. When they ask how, God exposes their cynicism: they say evildoers are pleasing to God, and they sneer, 'Where is the God of judgment?' Watching the wicked seem to prosper, they had begun to doubt that God cares about right and wrong at all. Their twisted talk had grown tiresome to heaven.
This is the voice of a discouraged faith curdling into cynicism, the temptation to conclude that goodness does not matter because evil goes unpunished. God hears such words, and they grieve Him. Yet the very question, 'Where is the God of judgment?', sets the stage for the answer that follows in the next chapter, where God promises that He will indeed come. The cynic's challenge is not ignored; it is answered. God is not indifferent to justice, and the One who seems delayed will surely come to set all things right.