¹⁸ Now the Lord God said, It is not good (sufficient, satisfactory) that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper (suitable, adapted, complementary) for him.

¹⁹ And out of the ground the Lord God formed every [wild] beast and living creature of the field and every bird of the air and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them; and whatever Adam called every living creature, that was its name.

²⁰ And Adam gave names to all the livestock and to the birds of the air and to every [wild] beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found a helper meet (suitable, adapted, complementary) for him.

²¹ And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam; and while he slept, He took one of his ribs or a part of his side and closed up the [place with] flesh.

²² And the rib or part of his side which the Lord God had taken from the man He built up and made into a woman, and He brought her to the man.

²³ Then Adam said, This [creature] is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of a man.

²⁴ Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and shall become united and cleave to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.^(A)

²⁵ And the man and his wife were both naked and were not embarrassed or ashamed in each other’s presence.

19 Now when Jesus had finished saying these things, He left Galilee and went into the part of Judea that is beyond the Jordan;

² And great throngs accompanied Him, and He cured them there.

³ And Pharisees came to Him and put Him to the test by asking, Is it lawful and right to dismiss and repudiate and divorce one’s wife for any and ^[a]every cause?

⁴ He replied, Have you never read that He Who made them from the beginning made them male and female,

⁵ And said, For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and shall be united firmly (joined inseparably) to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh?^(A)

⁶ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder (separate).

⁷ They said to Him, Why then did Moses command [us] to give a certificate of divorce and thus to dismiss and repudiate a wife?^(B)

⁸ He said to them, Because of the hardness (stubbornness and perversity) of your hearts Moses permitted you to dismiss and repudiate and divorce your wives; but from the beginning it has not been ^[b]so [ordained].

⁹ I say to you: whoever dismisses (repudiates, divorces) his wife, except for unchastity, and marries another commits adultery, ^[c]and he who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

⁴ Let marriage be held in honor (esteemed worthy, precious, of great price, and especially dear) in all things. And thus let the marriage bed be undefiled (kept undishonored); for God will judge and punish the unchaste [all guilty of sexual vice] and adulterous.