Bible Verses About Divorce: General references

`And when a man selleth his daughter for a handmaid, she doth not go out according to the going out of the men-servants;

if evil in the eyes of her lord, so that he hath not betrothed her, then he hath let her be ransomed; to a strange people he hath not power to sell her, in his dealing treacherously with her.

`And if to his son he betroth her, according to the right of daughters he doth to her.

`If another woman he take for him, her food, her covering, and her habitation, he doth not withdraw;

and if these three he do not to her, then she hath gone out for nought, without money.

`When thou goest out to battle against thine enemies, and Jehovah thy God hath given them into thy hand, and thou hast taken captive its captivity,

and hast seen in the captivity a woman of fair form, and hast delighted in her, and hast taken to thee for a wife,

then thou hast brought her in unto the midst of thy household, and she hath shaved her head, and prepared her nails,

and turned aside the raiment of her captivity from off her, and hath dwelt in thy house, and bewailed her father and her mother a month of days, and afterwards thou dost go in unto her and hast married her, and she hath been to thee for a wife:

`And it hath been--if thou hast not delighted in her, that thou hast sent her away at her desire, and thou dost not at all sell her for money; thou dost not tyrannize over her, because that thou hast humbled her.

`When a man doth take a wife, and hath married her, and it hath been, if she doth not find grace in his eyes (for he hath found in her nakedness of anything), and he hath written for her a writing of divorce, and given it into her hand, and sent her out of his house,

and she hath gone out of his house, and hath gone and been another man's,

and the latter man hath hated her, and written for her a writing of divorce, and given it into her hand, and sent her out of his house, or when the latter man dieth, who hath taken her to himself for a wife:

`Her former husband who sent her away is not able to turn back to take her to be to him for a wife, after that she hath become defiled; for an abomination it is before Jehovah, and thou dost not cause the land to sin which Jehovah thy God is giving to thee--an inheritance.

And at Ezra's praying, and at his making confession, weeping and casting himself down before the house of God, there have been gathered unto him out of Israel an assembly very great--men and women and children--for the people have wept, multiplying weeping.

And Shechaniah son of Jehiel, of the sons of Elam, answereth and saith to Ezra, `We--we have trespassed against our God, and we settle strange women of the peoples of the land; and now there is hope for Israel concerning this,

and now, let us make a covenant with our God, to cause all the women to go out, and that which is born of them, by the counsel of the Lord, and of those trembling at the command of our God, and according to law it is done;

rise, for on thee is the matter, and we are with thee; be strong, and do.'

And Ezra riseth, and causeth the heads of the priests, the Levites, and all Israel, to swear to do according to this word--and they swear.

And Ezra riseth from before the house of God, and goeth unto the chamber of Jehohanan son of Eliashib; yea, he goeth there, bread he hath not eaten, and water he hath not drunk, for he is mourning because of the trespass of the removal.

And they cause a voice to pass over into Judah and Jerusalem, to all sons of the removal, to be gathered to Jerusalem,

and every one who cometh not in by the third day, according to the counsel of the heads and of the elders, all his substance is devoted, and himself separated from the assembly of the removal.

And gathered are all the men of Judah and Benjamin to Jerusalem by the third day, it is the ninth month, on the twentieth of the month, and all the people sit in the broad place of the house of God, trembling on account of the matter and of the showers.

And Ezra the priest riseth, and saith unto them, `Ye--ye have trespassed, and ye settle strange women, to add to the guilt of Israel;

and, now, make confession to Jehovah, God of your fathers, and do His good pleasure, and be separated from the peoples of the land, and from the strange women.'