⁶ “But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.’^[a](A)

² He created them^(A) male and female^(B) and blessed them. And he named them “Mankind”^[a] when they were created.

The Beginning

⁴ They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised?^(A) Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.”^(B)

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.

¹⁹ because those will be days of distress unequaled from the beginning, when God created the world,^(A) until now—and never to be equaled again.^(B)

²⁰ So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals.

But for Adam^[a] no suitable helper^(A) was found. ²¹ So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep;^(B) and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs^[b] and then closed up the place with flesh. ²² Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib^[c](C) he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.

²³ The man said,