What does the Bible say about divorce?
Bible Topic · WEB
The Bible teaches that marriage is a lifelong covenant, and divorce is a grievous rupture permitted only in limited circumstances, never treated lightly or casually. Jesus grounds marriage in God’s joining of husband and wife, so that they should not be separated (Matthew 19:6), and explains that divorce arose because of human hardness of heart (Matthew 19:8). He identifies sexual immorality as grounds for divorce (Matthew 5:32; 19:9), while Paul teaches that a believer should seek reconciliation rather than separation (1 Corinthians 7:10-11). If an unbelieving spouse abandons the marriage, the believer is not bound to force its continuation (1 Corinthians 7:15). Malachi 2:16 warns against faithless dealing, calling God’s people to covenant faithfulness, mercy, repentance, and peace.
Top passages, ranked by readers
Rankings: OpenBible.info Topical Bible (CC BY) · Scripture: World English Bible
- Luke 16:18 5 votes
“Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery. He who marries one who is divorced from a husband commits adultery.
- Matthew 5:32 5 votes
but I tell you that whoever puts away his wife, except for the cause of sexual immorality, makes her an adulteress; and whoever marries her when she is put away commits adultery.
- 1 Corinthians 7:10-11 4 votes
But to the married I command—not I, but the Lord—that the wife not leave her husband (but if she departs, let her remain unmarried, or else be reconciled to her husband), and that the husband not leave his wife.
- 1 Corinthians 7:15 4 votes
Yet if the unbeliever departs, let there be separation. The brother or the sister is not under bondage in such cases, but God has called us in peace.
- Matthew 19:6 4 votes
So that they are no more two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, don’t let man tear apart.”
- Matthew 19:9 4 votes
I tell you that whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery; and he who marries her when she is divorced commits adultery.”
- Malachi 2:16 3 votes
One who hates and divorces”, says Yahweh, the God of Israel, “covers his garment with violence!” says Yahweh of Armies. “Therefore pay attention to your spirit, that you don’t be unfaithful.
- Matthew 19:8 3 votes
He said to them, “Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it has not been so.
- Romans 7:2 3 votes
For the woman that has a husband is bound by law to the husband while he lives, but if the husband dies, she is discharged from the law of the husband.
- Matthew 5:31-32 2 votes
“It was also said, ‘Whoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorce,’ but I tell you that whoever puts away his wife, except for the cause of sexual immorality, makes her an adulteress; and whoever marries her when she is put away commits adultery.
Related topics
Go deeper
Ask Explain Bible AI about divorce and get a fuller answer from a Reformed theological perspective.
Ask what the Bible says about divorce