Commentaries:
Adam Clarke
Except it be for fornication - See on Matthew 5:32 (note). The decision of our Lord must be very unpleasant to these men: the reason why they wished to put away their wives was, that they might take others whom they liked better; but our Lord here declares that they could not be remarried while the divorced person was alive, and that those who did marry, during the life of the divorced, were adulterers; and heavy judgments were, denounced, in their law, against such: and as the question was not settled by the schools of Shammai and Hillel, so as to ground national practice on it therefore they were obliged to abide by the positive declaration of the law, as it was popularly understood, till these eminent schools had proved the word had another meaning. The grand subject of dispute between the two schools, mentioned above, was the word in Deuteronomy 24:1, When a man hath taken a wife - and she find no grace in his sight, because of some Uncleanness, eruath : - this the school of Shammai held to mean whoredom or adultery; but the school of Hillel maintained that it signified any corporeal defect, which rendered the person deformed, or any bad temper which made the husband' s life uncomfortable. Any of the latter a good man might bear with; but it appears that Moses permitted the offended husband to put away the wife on these accounts, merely to save her from cruel usage.
In this discourse, our Lord shows that marriage, (except in one case), is indissoluble, and should be so: -
1st, By Divine institution, Matthew 19:4.
2dly, By express commandment, Matthew 19:5.
3dly, Because the married couple become one and the same person, Matthew 19:6.
4thly, By the example of the first pair, Matthew 19:8; and
5thly, Because of the evil consequent on separation, Matthew 19:9. The importance of this subject will, I hope, vindicate or excuse, the length of these notes.
Other commentary entries containing this verse:
Deuteronomy 24:4
Matthew 19:9
Mark 10:2
Luke 16:18
Romans 2:21
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