Divorce Grounds - According to the Bible, what are permissible grounds for divorce?

According to the Bible, what are permissible grounds for divorce?

I know that one can divorce if your husband or wife cheats but what other grounds for divorce are there? Can you direct me to any specific Bible quotes? Thanks

Public Comments

There are many who make it as if divorce and remarrying are "unforgivable sins". In saying this, they deny the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus paid for all sins, including divorce and remarrying. If you find yourself in these circumstances, seek the Lord's forgiveness (which you will find every time), and don't care what anyone else has to say.
Matthew 5:32 The only grounds for divorce in the bible is marital unfaithfulness.
Adultery, yes, but I think also desertion. I'm sorry but I don't remember where the scripture reference is.
Mathew 5: 31-32 "It was also said, "whoever divorces his wife must give her a bill of divorce." But I say to you, whoever divorces his wife (unless the marriage is unlawful) causes her to commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced women commits adultery.
No. that's the only one.
Good question, Anna, one that is greatly misunderstood, too. You see, when you take Jesus' statements in context, he was talking about Jewish divorce law, which was for a man to cast out his wife and write her a decree of divorcement. Jewish tradition even allowed bad breath as grounds to do the casting. Jesus set the record straight, "marital unfaithfulness." However, He was not talking about abandonment, where someone forsakes their marital vows. In that case, you might say: "They have cast their own self out." One must be careful about their marriage vows as they were recorded in Heaven, too. Jesus set examples and teachings of turning the other cheek and going the extra mile. "The servant is greatest in Heaven", He said. So, if you are being the type of wife God would have you be, and you husband dumps you, then in my book, you are free to choose another. Blessings, Ben Yeshua
See my answer to your other question.
First, this is a really tricky question. This is one of the very few doctrines that *does* hinge on a particular bible translation. Some bibles indicate that adultery (of your spouse) is sufficient cause, while others translate this same verse to indicate that only an illegal marriage (such as marrying your sibling) is a sufficient cause. This is why you see contradictory answers. Another sufficient cause: the spouse is an unbeliever and abandons the marriage http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1co%207:10-15&multilayout=cols&version1=49&version2=9 Jim, http://www.bible-reviews.com
You have been miss informed what Jesus taught was that a man can divorce his wife if he discovers that she was not a virgin when he married her as she entered marriage fraudulently. Any sin that would require capital punishment would require you to separate from them since as an occupied country they could not exercise capital punishment 1 Corinthians 5
And the Pharisees came to him, and asked him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife? tempting him. And he answered and said unto them, What did Moses command you? And they said, Moses suffered to write a bill of divorcement, and to put her away. And Jesus answered and said unto them, For the hardness of your heart he wrote you this precept. But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife; And they twain shall be one flesh: so then they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. And in the house his disciples asked him again of the same matter. And he saith unto them, Whosoever shall put away his wife, and marry another, committeth adultery against her. And if a woman shall put away her husband, and be married to another, she committeth adultery. --Mark 10:2-12 http://www.reviewlocator.com/reviews/surviving-divorce-divorce-survival-a-review-on-product-prepare-for-divorce/