What does the Bible say about marrying a divorced woman?
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The Bible teaches that marriage is a lifelong covenant, so marrying a divorced woman is ordinarily wrong if her former marriage was ended contrary to God’s will, though Scripture recognizes limited and difficult cases. Jesus says that wrongful divorce and remarriage involve adultery, while identifying sexual immorality as an exception in Matthew 5:32 and 19:9. Paul also addresses abandonment by an unbelieving spouse in 1 Corinthians 7:15. Genesis 2:24 grounds marriage in God’s joining of husband and wife, and Malachi 2:16 warns against covenant unfaithfulness. Christians should therefore pursue reconciliation where possible, repent of past sin, and receive God’s mercy in Christ while seeking faithful counsel.
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Rankings: OpenBible.info Topical Bible (CC BY) · Scripture: World English Bible
- Matthew 5:32
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.
- Matthew 19:9
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."
- Luke 16:18
Everyone who divorces his wife, and marries another, commits adultery. He who marries one who is divorced from a husband commits adultery.
- Malachi 2:16
For I hate divorce," says Yahweh, the God of Israel, "and him who covers his garment with violence!' says Yahweh of Hosts. "Therefore take heed to your spirit, that you don't deal treacherously.
- 1 Corinthians 7:39
A wife is bound by law for as long as her husband lives; but if the husband is dead, she is free to be married to whoever she desires, only in the Lord.
- Matthew 5:31-32
[31] "It was also said, 'Whoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorce,' [32] 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 7:15
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.
- Genesis 2:24
Therefore a man will leave his father and his mother, and will join with his wife, and they will be one flesh.
- Deuteronomy 24:1-4
[1] When a man takes a wife, and marries her, then it shall be, if she find no favor in his eyes, because he has found some unseemly thing in her, that he shall write her a bill of divorce, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house. [2] When she is departed out of his house, she may go and be another man's [wife]. [3] If the latter husband hate her, and write her a bill of divorce, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house; or if the latter husband die, who took her to be his wife; [4] her former husband, who sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after that she is defiled; for that is abomination before Yahweh: and you shall not cause the land to sin, which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance.
- Mark 10:11-12
[11] He said to them, "Whoever divorces his wife, and marries another, commits adultery against her. [12] If a woman herself divorces her husband, and marries another, she commits adultery."
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