Who was shedding tears in Malachi 2? Why were they weeping?

Malachi 2:13-16 says tears were covering the altar.

Who was shedding those tears? Why were they weeping?

Very likely it was women who were weeping because their husbands despised them.

‘Tears covering the altar’ is a figure of speech. Malachi probably didn’t mean that women were literally leaning over the altar weeping.

Remember 1 Samuel 1:12, where Eli the priest scorned Hannah when she wept in the tabernacle? Any weeping woman who ventured so close to the altar that she actually wet the altar with her tears would have risked being reprimanded by the male priests who officiated in the temple.

My post Whose tears are covering the altar in Malachi 2? The Matthew Bible vs. the Geneva Bible, Puritans and Calvin builds on Ruth Magnusson Davis’s article “Altars Covered in Tears” which compares Malachi 2:13-16 in the Matthew Bible (1537) and the Geneva Bible (1599).

I’ve updated the post to make it easier to understand. I rewrote the opening and made a few other changes, but the substance of my argument hasn’t changed.

Read it here: Whose tears are covering the altar in Malachi 2? The Matthew Bible vs. the Geneva Bible, Puritans and Calvin.