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What does the Bible say about divorce and separation?

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The Bible teaches that marriage is a holy, lifelong covenant, and that divorce is never to be treated lightly, though Scripture recognizes grave situations in which separation or divorce may occur. Jesus points back to God’s design of one-flesh faithfulness in Mark 10:2-12 and permits divorce for sexual immorality in Matthew 19:9. Paul urges married believers not to separate, but calls them to remain unmarried or be reconciled if separation happens, in 1 Corinthians 7:10-11. When an unbelieving spouse abandons a Christian, 1 Corinthians 7:15 teaches that the believer is not bound in the same way. Malachi 2:16 warns against treacherous covenant-breaking, while Hebrews 13:4 calls believers to honor marriage with purity, truth, repentance, and wise pastoral care.

Top passages, ranked by readers

Rankings: OpenBible.info Topical Bible (CC BY) · Scripture: World English Bible

  • 1 Corinthians 7:10-11 6 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.

  • Mark 10:2-12 5 votes

    Pharisees came to him testing him, and asked him, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” He answered, “What did Moses command you?” They said, “Moses allowed a certificate of divorce to be written, and to divorce her.” But Jesus said to them, “For your hardness of heart, he wrote you this commandment. But from the beginning of the creation, God made them male and female. For this cause a man will leave his father and mother, and will join to his wife, and the two will become one flesh, so that they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.” In the house, his disciples asked him again about the same matter. He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her. If a woman herself divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”

  • 1 Corinthians 7:15 5 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.

  • Malachi 2:16 4 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.

  • Luke 16:18 4 votes

    “Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery. He who marries one who is divorced from a husband commits adultery.

  • Matthew 19:9 3 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.”

  • 1 Timothy 5:8 3 votes

    But if anyone doesn’t provide for his own, and especially his own household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

  • 1 Corinthians 7:10-16 3 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. But to the rest I—not the Lord—say, if any brother has an unbelieving wife, and she is content to live with him, let him not leave her. The woman who has an unbelieving husband, and he is content to live with her, let her not leave her husband. For the unbelieving husband is sanctified in the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified in the husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but now they are holy. 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. For how do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?

  • Hebrews 13:4 3 votes

    Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the bed be undefiled; but God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterers.

  • Deuteronomy 24:1-4 2 votes

    When a man takes a wife and marries her, then it shall be, if she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some unseemly thing in her, that he shall write her a certificate of divorce, put it in her hand, and send her out of his house. When she has departed out of his house, she may go and be another man’s wife. If the latter husband hates her, and writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand, and sends her out of his house; or if the latter husband dies, who took her to be his wife; her former husband, who sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife after she is defiled; for that would be an abomination to Yahweh. You shall not cause the land to sin, which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance.

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