¹⁰He left that place and went to the region of Judea and^k beyond the Jordan. And crowds again gathered around him, and, as was his custom, he again taught them.^*

²Some,^l testing him, asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” ³He answered them, “What did Moses command you?” ⁴They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her.”^* ⁵But Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote this commandment for you. ⁶But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’^* ⁷‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife,^m^* ⁸and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh.^* ⁹Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”

¹⁰Then in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. ¹¹He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her,^* ¹²and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”

Jesus Blesses Little Children

¹³People were bringing children to him in order that he might touch them, and the disciples spoke sternly to them. ¹⁴But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the children come to me; do not stop them, for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. ¹⁵Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.”^* ¹⁶And he took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them.^*

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Footnotes

kOther ancient authorities lack and
lOther ancient authorities add Pharisees came and
mOther ancient authorities lack and be joined to his wife

Cross references

*Mt 19:1; Jn 10:40; 11:7
*Deut 24:1–4; Mt 5:31; 19:7
*Gen 1:27; 5:2
*Gen 2:24
*1 Cor 6:16
*Mt 5:32; Lk 16:18; Rom 7:3; 1 Cor 7:10, 11
*Mt 18:3; 1 Cor 14:20; 1 Pet 2:2
*Mk 9:36