Marriage and Divorce^(A)

19 Now it came to pass, ^(B)when Jesus had finished these sayings, that He departed from Galilee and came to the region of Judea beyond the Jordan. ^2 (C)And great multitudes followed Him, and He healed them there.

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

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

⁷ They said to Him, ^(G)“Why then did Moses command to give a certificate of divorce, and to put her away?”

⁸ He said to them, “Moses, because of the ^(H)hardness of your hearts, permitted you to divorce your ^(I)wives, but from the beginning it was not so. ^9 (J)And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for ^[b]sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced commits adultery.”

Freed from the Law

7 Or do you not know, brethren (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law ^[a]has dominion over a man as long as he lives? ² For ^(A)the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband. ³ So then ^(B)if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man.

Marriage Is Sacred and Binding^(A)

³¹ “Furthermore it has been said, ^(B)‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ ³² But I say to you that ^(C)whoever divorces his wife for any reason except ^[a]sexual immorality causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a woman who is divorced commits adultery.