Mark 10:1-12 ▼

1 Getting up, He left there (Capernaum) and went to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan; and crowds gathered around Him again and accompanied Him, and as was His custom, He once more began to teach them.

2 Pharisees came to Jesus to test Him [intending to trick Him into saying something wrong], and asked Him, “Is it lawful [according to Scripture] for a man to divorce his wife and send her away?”

3 He replied to them, “What did Moses command you?”

4 They said, “Moses allowed a man TO WRITE A CERTIFICATE OF DIVORCE AND TO SEND HER AWAY.”

5 But Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of hearts [your callousness and insensitivity toward your wives and the provision of God] he wrote you this precept.

6 But from the beginning of creation God MADE THEM MALE AND FEMALE.

7 FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND HIS MOTHER [to establish a home with his wife],

8 AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH; so that they are no longer two, but [are united as] one flesh.

9 Therefore, what God has united and joined together, man must not separate [by divorce].”

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

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

12 and if a woman divorces her husband and marries another man, she commits adultery.”