19When Jesus finished saying these things, he left Galilee. He went into the area of Judea on the other side of the Jordan River. ²Large crowds followed him. He healed them there.

³Some Pharisees came to put him to the test. They asked, “Does the Law allow a man to divorce his wife for any reason at all?”

⁴Jesus replied, “Haven’t you read that in the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female’? ⁵He said, ‘That’s why a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife. The two will become one.’ ⁶They are no longer two, but one. So a man must not separate what God has joined together.”

⁷They asked, “Then why did Moses command that a man can give his wife a letter of divorce and send her away?”

⁸Jesus replied, “Moses let you divorce your wives because you were stubborn. But it was not this way from the beginning. ⁹Here is what I tell you. Anyone who divorces his wife and gets married to another woman commits adultery. A man may divorce his wife only if she has not been faithful to him.”

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