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

⁸ He *said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses permitted you to ^[a]divorce your wives; but from the beginning it has not been this way.

² For ^(A)the married woman is bound by law to her ^[a]husband as long as he is alive; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law ^[b]concerning the husband. ³ So then, if while her husband is alive she ^[c]gives herself to another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress if she ^[d]gives herself to another man.

¹⁰ But to the married I give instructions, ^(A)not I, but the Lord, that the wife is not to leave her husband ¹¹ (but if she does leave, she must remain unmarried, or else be reconciled to her husband), and that the husband is not to ^[a]divorce his wife.

^39 (A)A wife is bound as long as her husband lives; but if her husband ^[a]dies, she is free to be married to whom she wishes, only ^(B)in the Lord.