Divorce in OT

The nature of divorce

Divorce dissolves a marriage

The certificate of divorce was a legal document ending the marriage.

See also Divorce ends the restrictions on a priest’s daughter which were the result of her marriage; Following divorce a husband is no longer responsible for his wife; Divorce properly entered into allows the parties to remarry; ;

Divorce was not God’s original intention

God’s displeasure at those of his people who divorced their Jewish wives to marry foreigners, thus breaking faith with their partners and with God; The Law of Moses did not command divorce, but regulated an existing practice, particularly to protect the wife.

See also ;

Circumstances permitting divorce

Displeasure

Deuteronomy 24:1 ESV

“When a man takes a wife and marries her, if then she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, and she departs out of his house,

See also ;

Returning exiles were required to divorce their foreign wives

Ezra 10:10–11 ESV

And Ezra the priest stood up and said to them, “You have broken faith and married foreign women, and so increased the guilt of Israel. Now then make confession to the Lord, the God of your fathers and do his will. Separate yourselves from the peoples of the land and from the foreign wives.”

See also

Circumstances where divorce was not allowed

where a husband makes false accusations about his wife’s virginity; where the marriage is contracted following the rape of a virgin

Restrictions on remarriage after divorce

Former partners who marry others

Deuteronomy 24:3–4 ESV

and the latter man hates her and writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, or if the latter man dies, who took her to be his wife, then her former husband, who sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after she has been defiled, for that is an abomination before the Lord. And you shall not bring sin upon the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance.

See also

Priests could not marry divorcees

; ;

The divorce between God and Israel

It was due to Israel’s unfaithfulness

Jeremiah 3:6–10 ESV

The Lord said to me in the days of King Josiah: “Have you seen what she did, that faithless one, Israel, how she went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and there played the whore? And I thought, ‘After she has done all this she will return to me,’ but she did not return, and her treacherous sister Judah saw it. She saw that for all the adulteries of that faithless one, Israel, I had sent her away with a decree of divorce. Yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but she too went and played the whore. Because she took her whoredom lightly, she polluted the land, committing adultery with stone and tree. Yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to me with her whole heart, but in pretense, declares the Lord.”

See also ;

God’s desire for reconciliation

Isaiah 54:4–8 ESV

“Fear not, for you will not be ashamed; be not confounded, for you will not be disgraced; for you will forget the shame of your youth, and the reproach of your widowhood you will remember no more. For your Maker is your husband, the Lord of hosts is his name; and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer, the God of the whole earth he is called. For the Lord has called you like a wife deserted and grieved in spirit, like a wife of youth when she is cast off, says your God. For a brief moment I deserted you, but with great compassion I will gather you. In overflowing anger for a moment I hid my face from you, but with everlasting love I will have compassion on you,” says the Lord, your Redeemer.

See also ; ;