Divorce

^31 (A)“It was also said, ^(B)‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ ^32 (C)But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery, and ^(D)whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

³ And Pharisees came up to him and ^(A)tested him by asking, ^(B)“Is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause?” ⁴ He answered, ^(C)“Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, ⁵ and said, ^(D)‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and ^(E)the two shall become one flesh’? ⁶ So they are no longer two but one flesh. ^(F)What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” ⁷ They said to him, ^(G)“Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?” ⁸ He said to them, “Because of your ^(H)hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.

²⁸ And God blessed them. And God said to them, ^(A)“Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

Laws Concerning Divorce

24 “When a man takes a wife and marries her, if then she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, and ^(A)he writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, and she departs out of his house,

^14 (A)But you say, “Why does he not?” Because the Lord ^(B)was witness between you and the wife of your youth, ^(C)to whom ^(D)you have been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant. ^15 (E)Did he not make them one, with a portion of the Spirit in their union?^[a] And what was the one God^[b] seeking?^{[c] (F)}Godly offspring. So guard yourselves^[d] in your spirit, and let none of you be ^(G)faithless to the wife of your youth. ¹⁶ “For ^(H)the man who does not love his wife but divorces her,^[e] says the Lord, the God of Israel, covers^[f] his garment with violence, says the Lord of hosts. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and ^(I)do not be faithless.”