Jesus Teaches About Divorce^(A)

10 Then Jesus left there and went into the area of Judea and across the Jordan River. Again, many people came to him, and Jesus taught them as he always did.

² Some Pharisees came to Jesus and tried to make him say something wrong. They asked him, “Is it right for a man to divorce his wife?”

³ Jesus answered, “What did Moses command you to do?”

⁴ The Pharisees said, “Moses allowed a man to divorce his wife by writing a certificate of divorce.”^[a]

⁵ Jesus said, “Moses wrote that command for you because you refused to accept God’s teaching. ⁶ But when God made the world, ‘he made people male and female.’^{[b] 7} ‘That is why a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife. ⁸ And the two people will become one.’^[c] So they are no longer two, but one. ⁹ God has joined them together, so no one should separate them.”

¹⁰ Later, when the followers and Jesus were in the house, they asked him again about the question of divorce. ¹¹ He said, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another woman has sinned against his wife. He is guilty of adultery. ¹² And the woman who divorces her husband and marries another man is also guilty of adultery.”