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A Law about Divorce

Moses said to Israel:

24 (A) Suppose a woman was divorced by her first husband because he found something disgraceful about her.[a] He wrote out divorce papers, gave them to her, and sent her away. Later she married another man, who then either divorced her in the same way or died. Since she has slept with her second husband, she cannot marry her first husband again. Their marriage would pollute the land that the Lord your God is giving you, and he would be disgusted.

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Footnotes

  1. 24.1 something disgraceful about her: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.

24 If a man marries a woman who becomes displeasing to him(A) because he finds something indecent about her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce,(B) gives it to her and sends her from his house, and if after she leaves his house she becomes the wife of another man, and her second husband dislikes her and writes her a certificate of divorce, gives it to her and sends her from his house, or if he dies, then her first husband, who divorced her, is not allowed to marry her again after she has been defiled. That would be detestable in the eyes of the Lord. Do not bring sin upon the land the Lord(C) your God is giving you as an inheritance.

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Divorce

(Matthew 19.9; Mark 10.11,12; Luke 16.18)

31 (A) You have been taught that a man who divorces his wife must write out divorce papers for her.[a]

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Footnotes

  1. 5.31 write out divorce papers for her: Jewish men could divorce their wives, but the women could not divorce their husbands. The purpose of writing these papers was to make it harder for a man to divorce his wife. Before this law was made, all a man had to do was to send his wife away and say that she was no longer his wife.

Divorce

31 “It has been said, ‘Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.’[a](A)

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Footnotes

  1. Matthew 5:31 Deut. 24:1