Translations:Didn't the law under the Sinai Covenant allow divorce for any cause?/19/en

3. Jesus said that the Deut. 24:1 divorce writ was allowed "because of the hard-heartedness of [the Israelites]" (Matt. 19:8). Some interpreters conclude, erroneously, that Jesus is saying that Deut. 24:1 allowed the divorce writ itself to break a marriage covenant -- as a concession to the Israelites' sinfulness. They typically follow up this erroneous interpretation by asserting that Jesus "tightened up" these restrictions with his pronouncement in Matt. 19:9 that the only allowance for divorce is fornication. Again, this is a misunderstanding of the "power" of the husband's divorce certificate: the writ of divorcement in Deut. 24:1 did not break the covenant, it merely recorded the covenant as "already broken" by some sin or crime (in the category of "fornication").