1You shall not see your brother’s ox or his sheep go astray and hide yourself from them. You shall surely bring them again to your brother. 2If your brother isn’t near to you, or if you don’t know him, then you shall bring it home to your house, and it shall be with you until your brother comes looking for it, and you shall restore it to him. 3So you shall do with his donkey. So you shall do with his garment. So you shall do with every lost thing of your brother’s, which he has lost and you have found. You may not hide yourself. 4You shall not see your brother’s donkey or his ox fallen down by the way, and hide yourself from them. You shall surely help him to lift them up again.
5A woman shall not wear men’s clothing, neither shall a man put on women’s clothing; for whoever does these things is an abomination to Yahweh your God.
6If you come across a bird’s nest on the way, in any tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs, and the hen sitting on the young, or on the eggs, you shall not take the hen with the young. 7You shall surely let the hen go, but the young you may take for yourself, that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days.
8When you build a new house, then you shall make a railing around your roof, so that you don’t bring blood on your house if anyone falls from there.
9You shall not sow your vineyard with two kinds of seed, lest all the fruit be defiled, the seed which you have sown, and the increase of the vineyard. 10You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together. 11You shall not wear clothes of wool and linen woven together.
12You shall make yourselves fringes on the four corners of your cloak with which you cover yourself.
13If any man takes a wife, and goes in to her, hates her, 14accuses her of shameful things, gives her a bad name, and says, “I took this woman, and when I came near to her, I didn’t find in her the tokens of virginity;” 15then the young lady’s father and mother shall take and bring the tokens of the young lady’s virginity to the elders of the city in the gate. 16The young lady’s father shall tell the elders, “I gave my daughter to this man as his wife, and he hates her. 17Behold, he has accused her of shameful things, saying, ‘I didn’t find in your daughter the tokens of virginity;’ and yet these are the tokens of my daughter’s virginity.” They shall spread the cloth before the elders of the city. 18The elders of that city shall take the man and chastise him. 19They shall fine him one hundred shekels of silver, and give them to the father of the young lady, because he has given a bad name to a virgin of Israel. She shall be his wife. He may not put her away all his days.
20But if this thing is true, that the tokens of virginity were not found in the young lady, 21then they shall bring out the young lady to the door of her father’s house, and the men of her city shall stone her to death with stones, because she has done folly in Israel, to play the prostitute in her father’s house. So you shall remove the evil from among you.
22If a man is found lying with a woman married to a husband, then they shall both die, the man who lay with the woman and the woman. So you shall remove the evil from Israel. 23If there is a young lady who is a virgin pledged to be married to a husband, and a man finds her in the city, and lies with her, 24then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city, and you shall stone them to death with stones; the lady, because she didn’t cry, being in the city; and the man, because he has humbled his neighbor’s wife. So you shall remove the evil from among you. 25But if the man finds the lady who is pledged to be married in the field, and the man forces her and lies with her, then only the man who lay with her shall die; 26but to the lady you shall do nothing. There is in the lady no sin worthy of death; for as when a man rises against his neighbor and kills him, even so is this matter; 27for he found her in the field, the pledged to be married lady cried, and there was no one to save her. 28If a man finds a lady who is a virgin, who is not pledged to be married, grabs her and lies with her, and they are found, 29then the man who lay with her shall give to the lady’s father fifty shekels of silver. She shall be his wife, because he has humbled her. He may not put her away all his days. 30A man shall not take his father’s wife, and shall not uncover his father’s skirt.
Most Christians throughout history have believed that marriage was intended for one man and one woman for as long as they both live. They have further believed that, with one exception, adultery is committed by a person who divorces his or her spouse and marries another. The question is, what is meant by πορνείᾳ (porneia—“except for immorality”); three possibilities have generally been given.
If the word immorality was used in its more restrictive sense, possibly referring to an illegal marriage under Jewish Law (see Lev 18:6-18; Matt 14:1-3), or the unfaithfulness of a Jewish bride during her betrothal (see Deut 22:13ff; Matt 1:18-19), then there are no biblical grounds for divorce and remarriage for those in a fully consummated, biblically legal marriage. This has been the historical view of the Church Fathers and the Roman Catholic Church.
If, on the other hand, the word that is translated immorality was used in the sense of sexual sin, including marital infidelity, then there are biblical grounds for divorce. In such cases, the innocent partner is free to remarry without committing adultery because the original marriage was nullified by the guilty partner's sexual misconduct (see Deut 24:1-4; Matt 19:1-10). This has been the majority view held by the Reformers and evangelicals.
Others have argued that Jesus did not discuss other biblical grounds for divorce, such as neglect (Exod 21:10-11), but He did not disapprove of divorce on these grounds. This position sees Jesus answering a very specific question, relating to a debate that had begun between the Hillel and Shammaite rabbinic schools over divorce. In the early years of the first century A.D., the Hillel school began to issue divorce certificates for “any matter,” while the Shammaites argued that divorces were only allowed for “matters of indecency” (which included sexual sin, as well as neglect). Jesus seems to have sided with the Shammaites, since He used almost the exact same phrase. This argument would also negate the seeming contradiction between Jesus and Paul on the subject (1 Cor 7:15).
For more information on the first two views, see H. Wayne House, Divorce and Remarriage: Four Christian Views, and for the latter perspective, see David Instone-Brewer, Divorce and Remarriage in the Bible: The Social and Literary Context.
Other Scriptures that bear on this important subject, include: Gen 2:24; Mal 2:14; Mark 10:11-12; Luke 16:18; Rom 7:1-3; 1 Cor 7:10-11; 15, 39.