Israel’s Sin and the Servant’s Obedience

50 This is what the Lord says:

⁸ I gave faithless Israel^(A) her certificate of divorce^(B) and sent her away because of all her adulteries. Yet I saw that her unfaithful sister Judah had no fear;^(C) she also went out and committed adultery.

²⁵ Since he was not able to pay,^(A) the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold^(B) to repay the debt.

⁵ Although we are of the same flesh and blood^(A) as our fellow Jews and though our children are as good as theirs, yet we have to subject our sons and daughters to slavery.^(B) Some of our daughters have already been enslaved, but we are powerless, because our fields and our vineyards belong to others.”^(C)

The Widow’s Olive Oil

4 The wife of a man from the company^(A) of the prophets cried out to Elisha, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that he revered the Lord. But now his creditor^(B) is coming to take my two boys as his slaves.”

³ For this is what the Lord says:

Israel Punished and Restored

⁴ They said, “Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away.”^(A)

⁵ “It was because your hearts were hard^(B) that Moses wrote you this law,” Jesus replied. ⁶ “But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.’^{[a](C) 7} ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife,^{[b] 8} and the two will become one flesh.’^[c](D) So they are no longer two, but one flesh. ⁹ Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”

¹⁰ When they were in the house again, the disciples asked Jesus about this. ¹¹ He answered, “Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her.^{(E) 12} And if she divorces her husband and marries another man, she commits adultery.”^(F)