The Wife of Thy Youth, Against Whom Thou Hast Dealt Treacherously

A recurring feature in the writing of the visionary men (and the Small Plates are full of this) is imagery of the Divine Woman.  No wonder, given that Nephi's view of the candlestick-tree-Virgin is that she is "precious above all."

In Malachi, "Judah" and "Jerusalem" (less than two centuries earlier, the "Jews [Judahites] who were at Jerusalem" were Lehi's opponents) have forsaken the wife of their youth, the woman with whom they have a covenant, and married "the daughter of a strange god."