¹⁴ You ask,^(A) “Why?” It is because the Lord is the witness^(B) between you and the wife of your youth.^(C) You have been unfaithful to her, though she is your partner, the wife of your marriage covenant.^(D)

¹⁵ Has not the one God made you?^(E) You belong to him in body and spirit. And what does the one God seek? Godly offspring.^[a](F) So be on your guard,^(G) and do not be unfaithful^(H) to the wife of your youth.

¹⁶ “The man who hates and divorces his wife,^(I)” says the Lord, the God of Israel, “does violence to the one he should protect,”^[b](J) says the Lord Almighty.

So be on your guard,^(K) and do not be unfaithful.

³ Some Pharisees came to him to test him. They asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife^(A) for any and every reason?”

⁴ “Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’^{[a](B) 5} and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’^[b]?^{(C) 6} So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”

⁷ “Why then,” they asked, “did Moses command that a man give his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away?”^(D)

⁸ Jesus replied, “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning. ⁹ I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery.”^(E)