Deuteronomy 24:1-4

DEUTERONOMY—NOTE ON Deuteronomy 24:1 By charging his wife with some indecency, the first husband acquired her dowry—her father’s marriage present to her—when he divorced her. If she then remarried, she would have received a second dowry. If her second marriage ended, through either death or divorce, she would have been able to keep her second dowry. The first husband is forbidden to exploit her by remarrying her in order to acquire her second dowry. This is the only OT law about divorce. Elsewhere it is assumed that divorce will sometimes occur (e.g., Leviticus 21:7, Leviticus 21:14; Numbers 30:9). See Jesus’ comments on Deuteronomy 24:1 in Matthew 5:31. In Matthew 19:7, Pharisees use this law to defend their position on divorce. Jesus, however, refers all the way back to creation (Genesis 1:27; Genesis 2:24) to show God’s ideal plan for marriage. Deuteronomy 24:1 recognizes that people have hard hearts and will sometimes fall short of God’s ideal. It preserves a minimum level of civility in cases of divorce.