Israel's Sin and the Servant's Obedience

⁸ She saw that for all the adulteries of that faithless one, Israel, ^(A)I had sent her away with ^(B)a decree of divorce. ^(C)Yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but she too went ^(D)and played the whore.

^25 (A)And since he could not pay, his master ordered him ^(B)to be sold, with his wife and ^(C)children and all that he had, and payment to be made.

⁵ Now ^(A)our flesh is as the flesh of our brothers, our children are as their children. Yet ^(B)we are forcing our sons and our daughters to be slaves, and some of our daughters have already been enslaved, but it is not in our power to help it, for other men have our fields and our vineyards.”

Elisha and the Widow's Oil

4 Now the wife of one of the ^(A)sons of the prophets cried to Elisha, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant feared the Lord, ^(B)but the creditor has come to take my two children to be his slaves.”

³ For thus says the Lord: ^(A)“You were sold for nothing, and ^(B)you shall be redeemed without money.”

⁴ They said, ^(A)“Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce and to send her away.” ⁵ And Jesus said to them, “Because of your ^(B)hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment. ⁶ But ^(C)from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them ^(D)male and female.’ ^7 (E)‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife,^{[a] 8} and ^(F)the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. ^9 (G)What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”

¹⁰ And in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. ¹¹ And he said to them, ^(H)“Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her, ¹² and ^(I)if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”