MacArthur on Dt 24.1-4

Dt 24.1-4, “When a man takes a wife and marries her, if then she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, and she departs out of his house, 2 and if she goes and becomes another man’s wife, 3 and the latter man hates her and writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, or if the latter man dies, who took her to be his wife, 4 then her former husband, who sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after she has been defiled, for that is an abomination before the LORD. And you shall not bring sin upon the land that the LORD your God is giving you for an inheritance. [The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Dt 24:1–4.]

MacArthur, “This passage does not command, commend, condone, or even suggest divorce. Rather, it recognizes that divorce occurs and permits it, but only on restricted grounds. The case presented here is designed to convey the fact that divorce produced defilement. Notice the following sequence: (1) if a man finds an uncleanness (some impurity or something vile, cf. 23:14) in his wife, other than adultery, which was punished by execution (cf. 22:22); (2) if he legally divorces her (although God hates divorce, as Mal. 2:16 says; He has designed marriage for life, as Genesis 2:24 declares; and He allowed divorce because of hard hearts, as Matt. 19:8 reveals); (3) if she then marries another man; and (4) if the new husband subsequently dies or divorces her; then, that woman could not return to her first husband (v. 4). This is so because she was “defiled” with such a defilement that is an abomination to the Lord and a sinful pollution of the Promised Land. What constitutes that defilement? Only one thing is possible—she was defiled in the remarriage because there was no ground for the divorce. So when she remarried, she became an adulteress (Matt. 5:31, 32) and is thus defiled so that her former husband can’t take her back. Illegitimate divorce proliferates adultery. See notes on Matthew 5:31, 32; 19:4–9.” [John F. MacArthur Jr., The MacArthur Bible Commentary (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2005), Dt 24:1–4.]