Jewish scholars and rabbis spent a lot of time in debate regarding the appropriate ground for divorce. Deuteronomy 24:1 mentions that divorce typically comes when something indecent is discovered (see also Deuteronomy 24:13), but does not specify exactly what it is. The rabbinical school of Shammai thought that it was limited to sexual immorality or a related action that brought shame. The rabbinical school of Hillel considered any cause to be sufficient, even something as trivial as a wife burning her husband’s food. 1 With his teaching, Jesus makes it clear that the indecency concerns marital unfaithfulness. 2
32 But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.