Matthew 19:1-8 ▼

1 When Jesus had finished saying these things, he left Galilee and went to the territory of Judea on the other side of the Jordan.

2 Large crowds followed him, and he healed them there.

3 Some Pharisees came to him in order to test him. They asked, |Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason?|

4 He answered them, |Haven't you read that the one who made them at the beginning 'made them male and female'

5 and said, 'That is why a man will leave his father and mother and be united with his wife, and the two will become one flesh'?

6 So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, man must never separate.|

7 They asked him, |Why, then, did Moses order us 'to give a certificate of divorce and divorce her'?|

8 He told them, |It was because of your hardness of heart that Moses allowed you to divorce your wives. But from the beginning it was not this way.