The Quran

عَسىٰ رَبُّهُ إِن طَلَّقَكُنَّ أَن يُبدِلَهُ أَزواجًا خَيرًا مِنكُنَّ مُسلِماتٍ مُؤمِناتٍ قانِتاتٍ تائِباتٍ عابِداتٍ سائِحاتٍ ثَيِّباتٍ وَأَبكارًا

Muhammad Asad

[O wives of the Prophet!] Were he to divorce [any of] you, God might well give him in your stead spouses better than you - women who surrender themselves unto God, who truly believe, devoutly obey His will, turn [unto Him] in repentance [whenever they have sinned] worship [Him alone] and go on and on [seeking His goodly acceptance]¹ - be they women previously married or virgins.²

For this rendering of the expression sa'ihat, see note 147 on 9:112, where the same expression occurs in the masculine gender relating to both men and women.
I.e., like the actual wives of the Prophet, one of whom ('A'ishah) was a virgin when she married him, one (Zaynab bint Jahsh) had been divorced, while the others were widows. This allusion, together with the fact that the Prophet did not divorce any of his wives, as well as the purely hypothetical formulation of this passage, shows that it is meant to be an indirect admonition to the Prophet's wives, who, despite their occasional shortcomings - unavoidable in human beings - did possess the virtues referred to above. On a wider plane, it seems to be an admonition to all believers, men and women alike: and this explains the subsequent change in the discourse.