Deuteronomy 24:1

24:1-4 Where the providence of God, or his own wrong choice in marriage, has allotted to a Christian a trial instead of a help meet; he will from his heart prefer bearing the cross, to such relief as tends to sin, confusion, and misery. Divine grace will sanctify this cross, support under it, and teach so to behave, as will gradually render it more tolerable.

Deuteronomy 24:1 . Some uncleanness — Some hateful thing, some distemper of body, or quality of mind, not observed before marriage: or some light carriage, as this phrase commonly signifies, but not amounting to adultery. Let him write — This is not a command, as some of the Jews understood it, nor an allowance and approbation, but merely a permission of that practice for prevention of greater mischiefs, and this only until the time of reformation, till the coming of the Messiah, when things were to return to their first institution and purest condition.

XXIV. Deuteronomy 24:1-4. DIVORCE. Some uncleanness.—Evidently mere caprice and dislike are not intended here. There must be some real ground of complaint. (See Margin.) Let him write her a bill of divorcement.—“Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, suffered you to put away your wives,” is the Divine comment upon this. It is a distinct concession to the weakness of Israel—not the ideal standard of the Law, but the highest which it was found practicable to enforce. (See Matthew 19:2 seq.) There are many other particular enactments in the Law of Moses of which the same thing may be said. The ideal standard of morality has never varied. There is no higher ideal than that of the Pentateuch. But the Law which was actually enforced, in many particulars fell short of that ideal. (2) If the latter husband hate her.—Rashi says here that “the Scripture intimates that the end of such a marriage will be that he will hate her.” He makes a similar remark on the marriage with the captive in Deuteronomy 21. The result of the marriage will be a hated wife, and a firstborn son of her, who will be a glutton and a drunkard. (4) Her former husband . . . may not take her again . . . and thou shalt not cause the land to sin.—The comment upon this, supplied by Jeremiah 3:1, is singularly beautiful. “They say, If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and become another man’s, shall he return unto her again? Shall not that land be greatly polluted?

Ver 1. - Because he hath found some uncleanness in her ; literally, a thing or matter of nakedness , i . e . some shameful thing, something disgraceful; LXX., ἄσχημον πρᾶγμα : Vulgate, "aliquam foeditatem." In the Targum of Onkelos, the expression is explained by עֲבֵירִת פִתֵגָם ; "aliquid foeditatis" (London Polyglot); "iniquitas rei alicujus"(Buxtorf); "the transgression of a [Divine] word" (Levi). On this the school of Hillel among the rabbins put the interpretation that a man might divorce his wife for any unbecomingness (Mishna, 'Gittin,' 9:10), or indeed for any cause, as the Pharisees in our Lord's day taught ( Matthew 19:3 ). The school of Shammai, on the other hand, taught that only for something disgraceful, such as adultery, could a wife be divorced (Lightfoot, 'Her. Hebrews et Talm.,' on Matthew 5:31 , Opp., tom. 2:290). Adultery, however, cannot be supposed here because that was punishable with death. A bill of divorcement ; literally, a writing of excision ; the man and woman having by marriage become one flesh, the divorce of the woman was a cutting of her off from the one whole. Lightfoot has given (lee. et.) different forms of letters of divorce in use among the Jews (see also Maimonides, 'De Divortiis,' Deuteronomy 4 . § 12). Deuteronomy 24:1

When a man hath taken a wife, and married her, and it come to pass that she find no favour in his eyes, because he hath found some uncleanness in her: {a} then let him write her a bill of divorcement, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house. (a) By this God does not approve light divorcement, but permits it to avoid further inconvenience; Mt 19:7.

In this and the next chapter certain particular rights and duties, domestic, social, and civil, are treated. The cases brought forward have often no definite connection, and seem selected in order to illustrate the application of the great principles of the Law in certain important events and circumstances. These four verses contain only one sentence, and should be rendered thus: If a man hath taken a wife, etc., and given her a bill of divorcement and Deuteronomy 24:2 if she has departed out of his house and become another man's wife; and Deuteronomy 24:3 if the latter husband hates her, then Deuteronomy 24:4 her former husband, etc. Moses neither institutes nor enjoins divorce. The exact spirit of the passage is given in our Lord's words to the Jews', "Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives" Matthew 19:8. Not only does the original institution of marriage as recorded by Moses Genesis 2:24 set forth the perpetuity of the bond, but the verses before us plainly intimate that divorce, while tolerated for the time, contravenes the order of nature and of God. The divorced woman who marries again is "defiled" Deuteronomy 24:4, and is grouped in this particular with the adulteress (compare Leviticus 18:20). Our Lord then was speaking according to the spirit of the law of Moses when he declared, "Whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery" Matthew 19:9.

He was speaking too not less according to the mind of the prophets (compare Malachi 2:14-16). But Moses could not absolutely put an end to a practice which was traditional, and common to the Jews with other Oriental nations. His aim is therefore to regulate and thus to mitigate an evil which he could not extirpate.

CHAPTER 24 De 24:1-22. Of Divorces. 1-4. When a man hath taken a wife, and married her, and it come to pass that she find no favour in his eyes—It appears that the practice of divorces was at this early period very prevalent amongst the Israelites, who had in all probability become familiar with it in Egypt [Lane]. The usage, being too deep-rooted to be soon or easily abolished, was tolerated by Moses (Mt 19:8). But it was accompanied under the law with two conditions, which were calculated greatly to prevent the evils incident to the permitted system; namely: (1) The act of divorcement was to be certified on a written document, the preparation of which, with legal formality, would afford time for reflection and repentance; and (2) In the event of the divorced wife being married to another husband, she could not, on the termination of that second marriage, be restored to her first husband, however desirous he might be to receive her.Of the woman that was dismissed by her husband with a bill of divorcement, Deu 24:1-4. The liberty of the new-married man, Deu 24:5. Pawns and pledges, Deu 24:6. Man-stealers, Deu 24:7. Leprosy, Deu 24:8. And again of pawns or pledges, Deu 24:10-13. Of day wages, Deu 24:14,15. Prone to be punished for another’s offence, Deu 24:16. Of justice and love towards widows, fatherless, and strangers, Deu 24:17-22. That she find no favour in his eyes, i.e. he dislike and loathe her.

It is a figure called meiosis, whereby more is understood than is expressed, as Proverbs 10:2 17:21 24:23. Uncleanness; Heb. nakedness, or shamefulness, or filthiness of a thing, i.e. some filthy or hateful thing, some loathsome distemper of body or quality of mind, not observed before marriage; or some light and unchaste carriage, as this or the like phrase commonly signifies, but not amounting to adultery, which was not punished with divorce, but with death. Send her out of his house; which is not a command to divorce them, as some of the Jews understood it, nor an allowance and approbation, as plainly appears, not only from the New Testament, Matthew 5:31,32 19:8,9, but also from the Old Testament, Genesis 2:24 Malachi 2:16; but merely a permission or toleration of that practice for prevention of greater mischiefs and cruelties of that hard-hearted people towards their wives, and this only for a season, even until the time of reformation, as it is called Hebrews 9:10, i.e. till the coming of the Messias, when things were to return to their first institution and purest condition. The husband is not here commanded to put her away, but if he do put her away, he is commanded to write and give her a bill of divorcement, before he send her out of his house.

When a man taketh a wife ] Deuteronomy 22:13 . then it shall be … that he shall write her , etc.] Rather, and it come to pass … that he write her , etc. The apodosis does not commence here but in Deuteronomy 24:4 . some unseemly thing ] As in Deuteronomy 23:14 (15), the nakedness of a thing , something indecent or repulsive, LXX ἄσχημον πρᾶγμα . The expression is so indefinite that it gave rise to controversy in the Rabbinic schools; that of Shammai understanding by it unchastity , that of Hillel any physical blemish or other, even the most trivial, cause of dislike. It cannot be adultery for this was punished by death. The words suggest some immodest exposure or failure in proper womanly reserve. bill of divorcement ] Lit. of separation. Bill , Heb. sepher , used of any missive (e.g. 2 Samuel 11:14 f.) or legal deed ( Jeremiah 32:11 ), as well as book, LXX βιβλίον . Something in legal form, and possibly procurable only from some public authority. Yet, notice, there is no mention of elders here as in the procedure in Deuteronomy 22:13-21 . The later Jews called such a document geṭ , and the procedure in connection with it is prescribed in the Mishna , ‘Giṭṭin.’ and give it … her … and send her …] Two further formal steps of personal service of the deed, and the husband’s own solemn dismissal. So his responsibility in the matter is not weakened.