2 Kingdoms (2 Samuel) 3:14Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

You may find it harsh to reinstate a wife to her husband after she has engaged in infidelity, yet where there is faith, harshness is absent. Why do we label as unfaithful those whom we believe have been purified through baptism or restored by repentance? According to the ancient law of God, no offering could redeem the sin of adultery, a transgression that is cleansed solely by the blood of the New Covenant. Thus, in the times of the Old Testament, it was prohibited to remarry a woman who had been sullied by an affair with another man. However, David, as a precursor of the New Covenant, did not hesitate to take back into marriage Michal, the daughter of Saul, who had originally been given to Phaltiel, son of Laish of Gallim (See 1 Samuel 25:44), after she had been separated from David.

The law prohibited a woman who had departed from her husband and wed another from returning to her first husband (Deuteronomy 24:4). How, then, did David allow Melchol to return to him after she had married someone else (2 Samuel 3:13-14)? According to the law, a wife released by her husband was not permitted to go back to her former spouse. This principle is echoed in the words of the prophet Jeremiah, who stated: “If a husband sends away his wife and she goes and becomes another man’s, is he allowed to take her back? Will that woman be found innocent and pure? Yet you have played the harlot with many lovers, and have returned to me, declares the Lord” (Jeremiah 3:1).