Matthew 19:1-8

Modern English Version

Teaching About Divorce^(A)

19 Now when Jesus finished these sayings, He departed from Galilee and came into the region of Judea beyond the Jordan. ² Large crowds followed Him, and He healed them there.

³ The Pharisees also came to Him, tempting Him and saying, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason?”

⁴ He answered, “Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’^{[a] 5} and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’^[b]? ⁶ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no man put asunder.”

⁷ They said to Him, “Then why did Moses command to give a certificate of divorce, and to send her away?”^[c]

⁸ He said to them, “Moses, for the hardness of your hearts, permitted you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.