An official document stating the end of a marriage between a husband and wife. The laws given by Moses required this document (Deuteronomy 24:1–4; see Matthew 5:31; 19:7; Mark 10:4). This certificate protected a woman's rights in two ways. First, it proved she was no longer married. Second, it prevented her former husband from claiming her marriage payment (the valuable items she brought into the marriage).
One example of the words used in such a document appears in Hosea 2:2: “She is not My wife, and I am not her husband.” The prophets of the Old Testament used this idea of divorce to show how God felt about his people when they turned away from him (Isaiah 50:1; Jeremiah 3:8). Just as a husband might separate from an unfaithful wife, God showed he was separating himself from his disobedient people.