Mark 10:2-16

International Standard Version

² Some Pharisees came to test him. They asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?”

³ “What did Moses command you?” he responded.

⁴ They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce and to divorce her.”^[a]

⁵ But Jesus told them, “It was because of your hardness of heart that he wrote this command for you. ⁶ But from the beginning of creation, ‘God^[b] made them male and female.’^{[c] 7} That’s why ‘a man will leave his father and mother and be united with his wife, ⁸ and the two will become one flesh.’^[d] So they’re no longer two, but one flesh. ⁹ Therefore, what God has joined together, man must never separate.”

¹⁰ Back in the house, the disciples asked him about this again. ¹¹ So he told them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her. ¹² And if a woman^[e] divorces her husband and marries another man, she commits adultery.”

Jesus Blesses the Little Children^(A)

¹³ Some people^[f] were bringing little children to Jesus^[g] to have him touch them. But the disciples rebuked those who brought^[h] them. ¹⁴ When Jesus saw this, he became furious and told them, “Let the little children come to me, and stop keeping them away, because the kingdom of God belongs to people like these. ¹⁵ I tell all of you^[i] with certainty, whoever doesn’t receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.” ¹⁶ Then after he had hugged the children,^[j] he tenderly blessed them as he laid his hands on them.