Jesus’ Teaching about Divorce

1 aGetting up, He * went from there to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan; crowds * gathered around Him again, and, baccording to His custom, He once more began to teach them.

2 Some Pharisees came up to Jesus, testing Him, and began to question Him whether it was lawful for a man to 1divorce a wife.

3 And He answered and said to them, “What did Moses command you?”

4 They said, “aMoses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and 1send her away.”

5 But Jesus said to them, “1aBecause of your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment.

6 “But afrom the beginning of creation, God bmade them male and female.

7 “aFor this reason a man shall leave his father and mother1,

8 aand the two shall become one flesh; so they are no longer two, but one flesh.

9 “What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.”

10 In the house the disciples began questioning Him about this again.

11 And He * said to them, “aWhoever 1divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her;

12 and aif she herself 1divorces her husband and marries another man, she is committing adultery.”