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Rh that wives should be the companions of their husbands, (Deut. 24:5;) and the bill of divorcement which the law directed to be given to a woman, when put away by her husband, was allowed on account of the hardness of men's hearts.

5. Nor were the Hebrews authorized to put away their wives "at pleasure." Restraints were laid on them. Some wives they were forbidden to divorce. See Deut. 22:13–19, 28, 29. The text referred to by Omicron (Deut. 25:1) is altogether insufficient to sustain his sweeping assertion, that a "Hebrew husband might divorce his wife at any time, on slight grounds," and "at pleasure." (P. 27.) The "uncleanness" referred to in the text, was in the judgment of Scott, something that formed "a real grievance." Commentators, however, are divided in their opinions; and so were the two famous Jewish schools in our Saviour's time.

The lax interpretation should not be admitted for the following reasons:—1. The condemnation of it by our Great Teacher, when the