A Word to Husbands

^7 (A)Husbands, likewise, dwell with them with understanding, giving honor to the wife, ^(B)as to the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life, ^(C)that your prayers may not be hindered.

^19 (A)Husbands, love your wives and do not be ^(B)bitter toward them.

²³ And Adam said:

^24 (C)Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and ^(D)be^[c] joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

³ The Pharisees also came to Him, testing Him, and saying to Him, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason?”

⁴ And He answered and said to them, “Have you not read that He who ^[a]made them at the beginning ^(A)‘made them male and female,’ ⁵ and said, ^(B)‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and ^(C)the two shall become one flesh’? ⁶ So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.”

⁷ They said to Him, ^(D)“Why then did Moses command to give a certificate of divorce, and to put her away?”

⁸ He said to them, “Moses, because of the ^(E)hardness of your hearts, permitted you to divorce your ^(F)wives, but from the beginning it was not so. ^9 (G)And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for ^[b]sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced commits adultery.”

^25 (A)Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and ^(B)gave Himself for her, ²⁶ that He might ^[a]sanctify and cleanse her ^(C)with the washing of water ^(D)by the word, ^27 (E)that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, ^(F)not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. ²⁸ So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself.