Matthew 19:1-9 ▼

1 When Jesus had finished saying these things, he left Galilee and went to the region of Judea beyond the Jordan.

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

3 Some Pharisees came to him, and to test him they asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause?”

4 He answered, “Have you not read that the one who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’

5 and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?

6 So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”

7 They said to him, “Why then did Moses command us to give a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her?”

8 He said to them, “It was because you were so hard-hearted that Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.

9 And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for unchastity, and marries another commits adultery.”