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

¹⁶ “The man who hates and divorces his wife,^(A)” says the Lord, the God of Israel, “does violence to the one he should protect,”^[a](B) says the Lord Almighty.

So be on your guard,^(C) and do not be unfaithful.

Breaking Covenant Through Injustice

¹⁷ You have wearied^(D) the Lord with your words.

“How have we wearied him?” you ask.^(E)

By saying, “All who do evil are good in the eyes of the Lord, and he is pleased^(F) with them” or “Where is the God of justice?^(G)”