Matthew 19:1-9

Christian Standard Bible

The Question of Divorce

19 When Jesus had finished saying these things,^(A) he departed from Galilee and went to the region of Judea across the Jordan.^{(B) 2} Large crowds followed him, and he healed them there.^{(C) 3} Some Pharisees approached him to test him. They asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife on any grounds?” ^(D)

⁴ “Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that he who created^[a] them in the beginning made them male and female,^{[b](E) 5} and he also said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’?^{[c](F) 6} So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, let no one separate.”

⁷ “Why then,” they asked him, “did Moses command us to give divorce papers^(G) and to send her away?”

⁸ He told them, “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because of the hardness of your hearts, but it was not like that from the beginning. ⁹ I tell you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another commits adultery.”^[d](H)