Deuteronomy 24:1-4

Contemporary English Version

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. ²Later she married another man, ³who then either divorced her in the same way or died. ⁴Since 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

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

Matthew 5:31

Contemporary English Version

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

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.

Matthew 5:31 in all English translations