Excellent Analysis on marriage laws in the Bible for the most part:

What was Messiah Yahusha discussing in the following passage in regards to “divorce”?

It has been said, Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement: G647 And I say unto you, whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causes her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is put away commits adultery. (Mattithyahu/Matthew 5:31-32)

Does this mean a divorced woman commits adultery if she marries another man? The Torah says that it is permissible for a woman to marry another man after she is divorced. It is not a sin.

When a man has taken a wife, and married her, and it come to pass that she find no favor in his eyes, because he has found some uncleanness in her: then let him write her a bill H5612 of divorcement, H3748 , and give it in her hand, and send H7971 her out of his house. And when she is departed out of his house, she may go and be another man’s wife. And if the latter husband hate her, and write her a bill H5612 of divorcement, H3748 , and gives it in her hand, and sends H7971 her out of his house; or if the latter husband die, which took her to be his wife; Her former husband, which sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after that she is defiled; for that is abomination before Yahuah: and thou shall not cause the land to sin, which Yahuah your Elohiym gives you for an inheritance. (Debarim/Deuteronomy 24:1-4)

Based upon this passage, three things need to occur:

1. He writes a bill/certificate of divorce.
2. He hands it to his wife.
3. He puts away his wife, sending her out from his house.

The Hebrew word for “divorcement” is “keriythuth” which means cut off, divorce (H3748). The Hebrew word translated as “bill” is “sepher” and simply means scroll or document (H5612). The Hebrew word for “put away” is “shalach” and it means to “send away”. These are two different things. The Hebrew word “shalach” is used in the following passage (H7971):

Therefore, Yahuah Elohiym sent him forth H7971 from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. (Bereshith/Genesis 3:23)

It is the physical action of sending someone away. Yahuah had sent Adam and Chavah away from His house. They were removed from His House like a woman is removed when he divorces her. The distinction is also noted in the following passage. They are not the same things.

Thus saith Yahuah, Where is the bill of your mother’s divorcement, H3748 , I have put away? H7971 or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother put away. H7971 . (Yeshayahu/Isaiah 50:1)

This distinction is also made in the following passage:

And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Yashar’El committed adultery I had put her away, H7971 , and given her a bill of divorce; H3748 ; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also. (Yirmeyahu/Jeremiah 3:8)

Why is this significant? “Putting away” is the act of sending a woman out of a man’s house. “The bill of divorcement” was the lawful document illustrating the severance of the relationship. In the divorce, the husband is required to return the dowry to his wife which she brought into the marriage. The bride price is the money and gifts given to the bride’s family and the dowry or mohar contained the property and money given to the daughter by her family that she would take with her when she married her husband.

In the Torah, the standard price for a bride was 50 shekels. This was money paid to the father because of the value she had in his household. She was a contributing member of the household. When she leaves her father’s house, her father experiences a loss when she leaves his house. The compensation helped offset this loss. Of course, this gift offered by the groom and his family could be more. The minimum bride price is mentioned in the following passage.

If a man find a damsel that is a virgin, which is not betrothed, and lay hold on her, and lie with her, and they be found; Then the man that lay with her shall give unto the damsel’s father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife; because he hath humbled her, he may not put her away all his days. (Debarim/Deuteronomy 22:28-29)

The “dowry” or “mohar” was the property and money given to the bride by her family which typically exceeded the bride price. Here is an excerpt taken from Wikipedia.

A dowry is a payment, such as property or money, paid by the bride’s family to the groom or his family at the time of marriage. Dowry contrasts with the related concepts of bride price and dower. While bride price or bride service is a payment by the groom, or his family, to the bride, or her family, dowry is the wealth transferred from the bride, or her family, to the groom, or his family. Similarly, dower is the property settled on the bride herself, by the groom at the time of marriage, and which remains under her ownership and control.[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dowry

A dowry is the transfer of parental property to a daughter at her marriage (i.e. “inter vivos”) rather than at the owner’s death (mortis causa).[6] A dowry establishes a type of conjugal fund, the nature of which may vary widely. This fund may provide an element of financial security in widowhood or against a negligent husband, and may eventually go to provide for her children.[6] Dowries may also go toward establishing a marital household, and therefore might include furnishings such as linens and furniture. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dowry

Jason Staples discusses this concept in his article titled, “Dowry and Bride Price are not the same thing”:

The dowry, on the other hand, is the wealth a woman brings to her husband as a part of the marriage. The dowry has usually been provided by the woman’s family at the time of the marriage; the idea behind the dowry is to aid the beginning of the new household, aiding the new husband in the provision for his wife. Interestingly, the dowry has usually been greater than the bride price in those cultures practicing both traditions, suggesting that the concept of “buying” a wife misunderstands the reasoning behind such transactional marriages. Consider the following scenario: a young man must pay a bride price of $10,000 to the bride’s parents before he marries his choice of a bride. When he marries her, she brings a dowry of $25,000 from her parents as “seed money” for the new marriage. How exactly would this work as “buying a wife”? That would certainly be the best mail-in rebate I’ve ever seen!

In addition to helping the young marriage start off well, the dowry also aimed to provide for a young woman in the event of her husband’s untimely death or a divorce (generally the dowry would need to be returned by the husband, making it financially difficult to divorce—modern “alimony” payments derive from this concept and the related concept of the “dower,” which was sort of like an ancient pre-nuptial agreement). Also, since in many past societies, women did not receive an inheritance from their parents, the dowry served as a substitute for the woman’s inheritance. Upon the death of a woman, the value of her dowry was to be divided only among her children—it was not to go to any of her husband’s other children, if he had any. https://www.jasonstaples.com/sociology/dowry-and-bride-price-are-not-the-same-thing/

This is a practice found in nearly every culture in the world throughout time. In a divorce, the dowry was returned to the wife. The husband no longer had access to her property or the monies associated with it. This is alluded to in the following passage:

And Rachel and Leah answered and said unto him, Is there yet any portion or inheritance for us in our father’s house? Are we not counted of him strangers? for he hath sold us, and hath quite devoured also our money. For all the riches which Elohiym hath taken from our father, that is ours, and our children’s: now then, whatsoever Elohiym hath said unto thee, do. (Bereshith/Genesis 31:14-16)

Laban had spent their dowry. They had nothing to help support them if they chose to stay in the land of their father. They had no choice but to return with Ya’akob (Jacob). The dowry is to be held in escrow and preserved. Upon divorce, the dowry was returned to the wife. Here is an article on “Bride Price” from Wikipedia.

The husband had to return his wife’s dowry regardless of who had initiated the divorce proceedings, and he had to give her all of her possessions before she was required to depart from his home.

The Torah discusses the practice of paying a bride price to the father of a virgin at Shemot (Exodus) 22:16-17 (JPS translation): “And if a man entice a virgin that is not betrothed, and lie with her, he shall surely pay a dowry for her to be his wife. If her father utterly refuse to give her unto him, he shall pay money according to the dowry of virgins.” Devarim (Deuteronomy) 22:28-29 similarly states, “If a man find a damsel that is a virgin, that is not betrothed, and lay hold on her, and lie with her, and they be found; then the man that lay with her shall give unto the damsel’s father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife, because he hath humbled her; he may not put her away all his days.”

Jewish law in ancient times insisted upon the betrothed couple signing a ketubah, a formal contract. The ketubah provided for an amount to be paid by the husband in the event he divorced his wife (i.e. if he gives her a get; women cannot divorce their husbands in orthodox Jewish law); or by his estate in the event of his death. The provision in the ketubah replaced the bride price tradition recited in the Torah, which was payable at the time of the marriage by the groom.

This innovation came about because the bride price created a major social problem: many young prospective husbands could not raise the amount at the time when they would normally be expected to marry. To enable these young men to marry, the rabbis (in effect) delayed the time that the amount would be payable, when they would be more likely to have the sum. The object — in either case — was financial protection for the wife should the husband die, divorce her or disappear. The only difference between the two systems was the timing of the payment.

In fact, the rabbis were so insistent on the bride having the “benefit of the ketubah” that some even described a marriage without one as being merely concubinage, because the bride would lack the benefit of the financial settlement in case of divorce or death of the husband; without which the woman and her children could become a burden on the community. However, the husband could refuse to pay if a divorce was on account of adultery by the wife. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bride_price

Perhaps the difference between a wife and a concubine is that the concubine did not come into the relationship with a dowry or was not given a bride price to her father.

During the time of Yahusha, men were “putting away” their wives without giving them a writing of divorcement because the men wanted to retain control over his wife’s dowry. The only time a man would not have to return the dowry was for fornication. The Greek words for “divorce” and “putting away” are also different from one another.

The argument works like this. The Greek word for “certificate of divorce,” ἀποστάσιον apostasion, means exactly that, a certificate of divorce. However, the verb “divorces,” ἀπολύω apoluō, means to “put away” and is not the Greek word for divorce. https://michaeldursoblog.com/2020/02/10/divorce-and-putting-away-different-things-or-are-both-divorce/

The reference number from Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance are the same for “putting away”.

It has been said, Whosoever shall put away G630 his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement: G647 And I say unto you, whosoever shall put away G630 his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causes her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is put away G630 commits adultery. (Mattithyahu/Matthew 5:31-32)

Because the husbands were not giving their wives a “writing of divorcement”, they were not really divorced. Any man who married a woman “put away” by her previous husband was committing adultery because she was not really divorced from her previous husband in the eyes of Yahuah. These men were also causing her to commit adultery because in essence she was still married to her previous husband. It appears this was a practice also during the time of Malakiy (Malachi).

For Yahuah, the Elohiym of Yashar’El, saith that he hates putting away: H7971 : for one covers violence with his garment, saith Yahuah of hosts: therefore take heed to your spirit, that ye deal not treacherously. (Malakiy/Malachi 2:16)

“Putting away” a wife without giving her a “writing of divorcement” is an act of treachery. It is wrong not to return her dowry which rightfully belongs to her. This interpretation agrees with the written Torah. Divorce was and is not a sin. There are specific parameters for divorce mentioned in a previous post.