Matthew 19:1-9 ▼

1 When Jesus had finished this instruction, He departed from Galilee and went to the region of Judea across the Jordan.

2 Large crowds followed Him, and He healed them there.

3 Some Pharisees approached Him to test Him. They asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife on any grounds?”

4 “Haven’t you read,” He replied, “that He who created them in the beginning made them male and female,”

5 and He also said: “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to 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 not separate.|”

7 Why then,” they asked Him, “did Moses command us to give divorce papers and to send her away?”

8 He told them, “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because of the hardness of your hearts. But it was not like that from the beginning.

9 And I tell you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.”