Translations:Does the divorce of the foreign women in Ezra 9-10 show that civil government has authority to dissolve marriages or preside over "divorce trials"?/7/en

Biblical law does not require a husband to prove publicly, before a judge, the crime of adultery or fornication on the part of a wife, before issuing a "writ of divorcement." This "writ" has no legal power over a marriage covenant. The marriage covenant would have to already be broken by fornication on the part of the wife. The "writ of divorcement" is simply an official declaration by the husband (not by the civil government) that he has "put away" his wife, an assertion that the marriage covenant has already been broken, and that he did not attempt to re-establish it. This legal writ protects the wife from a future accusation by her former husband, in case he got jealous or angry when she got remarried. Under Biblical law, a judge would only be sought out (by a wife, presumably) if the former husband refused to give her the writ, as required by Biblical law.