DEUTERONOMY 22
It has been suggested that Deut 22 also advocates divorce. But, again, a closer examination will find this to be untrue. Verses Deut. 22:13-21Deut. 22:13-21 13 ¶If any man take a wife, and go in unto her, and hate her, 14 And give occasions of speech against her, and bring up an evil name upon her, and say, I took this woman, and when I came to her, I found her not a maid: 15 Then shall the father of the damsel, and her mother, take and bring forth the tokens of the damsel’s virginity unto the elders of the city in the gate: 16 And the damsel’s father shall say unto the elders, I gave my daughter unto this man to wife, and he hateth her; 17 And, lo, he hath given occasions of speech against her, saying, I found not thy daughter a maid; and yet these are the tokens of my daughter’s virginity. And they shall spread the cloth before the elders of the city. 18 And the elders of that city shall take that man and chastise him; 19 And they shall amerce him in an hundred shekels of silver, and give them unto the father of the damsel, because he hath brought up an evil name upon a virgin of Israel: and she shall be his wife; he may not put her away all his days. 20 But if this thing be true, and the tokens of virginity be not found for the damsel: 21 Then they shall bring out the damsel to the door of her father’s house, and the men of her city shall stone her with stones that she die: because she hath wrought folly in Israel, to play the whore in her father’s house: so shalt thou put evil away from among you. deal with a man who finds his wife is not a virgin when he marries her. If the accusation was found to be false, no matter what the subsequent feelings of the couple were for each other, (and we can well imagine the strain in such a marriage), he could not put her away "all his days". Such a marriage would most probably be a severe strain on both parties for the rest of their lives. Yet they could not divorce!
If the accusation was proved, then the woman was put to death for her pre-marital misconduct, because "she hath wrought folly in Israel". Even though she may have been faithful to her husband since their betrothal, she was put to death for her fornication (the Hebrew word translated "whore" in verse 21 is "zanah" — "to commit fornication"), or pre-marital misconduct. This was not to set the husband free, as some would allege, but to condemn the woman's sin, and to "put away evil from among" God's people (verse 21). The sentence of death was because the woman had transgressed against God, and against His law. The fact that the marriage had been terminated by the death of the transgressor, and the husband freed from his marriage bond was incidental to this.
We cannot, and must not, go beyond the teaching of God's Word.Deut 22:22 pronounces sentence of death upon all adulterers and adulteresses. Again, it was not to free the innocent partner, but in order to "put away evil from Israel". We must not ignore the reason given in Scripture, and attempt to insert our own reason, simply because it seems to us to be more humanitarian, for that would be to question God's own wisdom and love. We cannot, and must not, go beyond the teaching of God's Word. The other references in Deuteronomy 22 are to premarital misconduct, and to rape. It should be noted that, if a man had forced a virgin who was not betrothed, he was forced to marry her, and could not "put her away all his days". If ever there was a bad marriage this was it, but even so, according to the Law, that marriage was for life, and could not be broken. Far from advocating divorce and remarriage, the instances recorded in Deuteronomy 22 uphold the sanctity of the marriage-bond, and even insist on the worst marriages lasting the life-time of the partners.