Matthew 19:1–9

Instruction About Divorce

Mark 10:1–16; Luke 18:15–17

19Now it came to pass, ^awhen Jesus had finished these sayings, that He departed from Galilee and came to the region of Judea beyond the Jordan. ^2bAnd great multitudes followed Him, and He healed them there.

³The Pharisees also came to Him, testing Him, and saying to Him, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason?”

⁴And He answered and said to them, “Have you not read that He who ¹made them at the beginning ^c‘made them male and female,’ ⁵and said, ^d‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and ^ethe two shall become one flesh’? ⁶So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.”

⁷They said to Him, ^f“Why then did Moses command to give a certificate of divorce, and to put her away?”

⁸He said to them, “Moses, because of the ^ghardness of your hearts, permitted you to divorce your ^hwives, but from the beginning it was not so. ⁹ⁱAnd I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for ²sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced commits adultery.”