Deuteronomy 24 You can't go back

seekeroftruth

Well-Known Member
Deuteronomy 24:1 If a man marries a woman who becomes displeasing to him because he finds something indecent about her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce, gives it to her and sends her from his house, 2 and if after she leaves his house she becomes the wife of another man, 3 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, 4 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 your God is giving you as an inheritance.​

This is from the easy English site.

Maybe a man divorces his wife. He must not marry her again if her second husband divorces her. He must not marry her even if her second husband dies. We do not know why the first man wanted to divorce his wife. He had to write down his reason. It was not because his wife had sex with someone else. Death was the punishment for that sin. The first husband could not claim back his first wife again. So this law protected his second wife. And it increased the importance of women. Also, the law would help to prevent easy divorces. A public official had to prepare the note of divorce. Although Hosea’s wife had not been loyal to him, he refused to divorce her. So, when he found her, he could take her back home as his wife. Jeremiah refers to this law in Jeremiah chapter 3. The people in Israel were not loyal to God, but God would not leave them.​

This is from Bibletrack.org.

Here's a provision under the Mosaic Law that restricts a man from remarrying a woman after his divorce from her and her subsequent remarriage to another man. It would appear that this law is designed to protect the second marriage from emotions which may be potentially revived between the original marriage partners. This is a bridge-burning law that says, "You can't go back!"

What might this "uncleanness" of verse 1 involve? After all, the realization that a Hebrew woman wasn't a virgin after one marries her is dealt with in Deuteronomy 22:13-30, and the penalty for this unfaithfulness was stoning to death - no divorce required there. Likewise, death by stoning is the outcome specified for adultery in Numbers 5:11-31. However, there are at least a couple of situations that come to mind where a woman taken in marriage may not be a virgin. In Exodus 22:16-17 we see a situation where an innocent woman is no longer a virgin. Another scenario might be the woman taken prisoner and subsequently taken as a wife by her Hebrew captor as seen in Deuteronomy 21:10-14. In both instances we have the possibility that one might marry a woman who was not a virgin at marriage and become dissatisfied afterward because of the discovered "uncleanness."

This was a culture that allowed polygamy. These men couldn't wife swap.... Once a man married a woman he just couldn't throw her out and then take her back.... that would be like swapping. Adultery was a capital offense..... so this was not about adultery.... this was about something else... something out of the woman's control.

:coffee:
 
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