Matthew 19:1-9 ▼

1 When Jesus had finished these discourses, He removed from Galilee and came into that part of Judaea which lay beyond the Jordan.

2 And a vast multitude followed him, and He cured them there.

3 Then came some of the Pharisees to Him to put Him to the proof by the question, "Has a man a right to divorce his wife whenever he chooses?"

4 "Have you not read," He replied, "that He who made them 'made them' from the beginning 'male and female,

5 and said, For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two shall be one'?

6 Thus they are no longer two, but 'one'! What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate."

7 "Why then," said they, "did Moses command the husband to give her 'a written notice of divorce,' and so put her away?"

8 "Moses," He replied, "in consideration of the hardness of your nature permitted you to put away your wives, but it has not been so from the beginning.

9 And I tell you that whoever divorces his wife for any reason except her unfaithfulness, and marries another woman, commits adultery."