⁸ He said to them, “It was because you were so hard-hearted that Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.

¹³ And this you do as well: You cover the Lord’s altar with tears, with weeping and groaning because he no longer regards the offering or accepts it with favor at your hand. ¹⁴ You ask, “Why does he not?” Because the Lord was a witness between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant.^(A)

²⁴ Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh.^(A)

⁵ But Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote this commandment for you.

¹² They made their hearts adamant in order not to hear the law and the words that the Lord of hosts had sent by his spirit through the former prophets. Therefore great wrath came from the Lord of hosts.^(A)

⁶ This I say by way of concession, not of command.^(A)

³¹ The demons begged him, “If you cast us out, send us into the herd of swine.”

¹⁵ But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented.