Matthew 19:1

⁴⁰He went away again beyond the Jordan into the place where John was baptizing at first, and he stayed there.

¹When Jesus had finished these words, he departed from Galilee and came into the borders of Judea beyond the Jordan. ²Great multitudes followed him, and he healed them there.

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

⁴He answered, “Haven’t you read that he who made them from the beginning made them male and female,⁵and said, ‘For this cause a man shall leave his father and mother, and shall be joined to his wife; and the two shall become one flesh’?⁶So that they are no more two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, don’t let man tear apart.”

⁷They asked him, “Why then did Moses command us to give her a certificate of divorce and divorce her?”

⁸He said to them, “Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it has not been so. ⁹I tell you that whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery; and he who marries her when she is divorced commits adultery.”

¹He arose from there and came into the borders of Judea and beyond the Jordan. Multitudes came together to him again. As he usually did, he was again teaching them.

²Pharisees came to him testing him, and asked him, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?”

³He answered, “What did Moses command you?”

⁴They said, “Moses allowed a certificate of divorce to be written, and to divorce her.”

⁵But Jesus said to them, “For your hardness of heart, he wrote you this commandment. ⁶But from the beginning of the creation, God made them male and female.⁷For this cause a man will leave his father and mother, and will join to his wife, ⁸and the two will become one flesh,so that they are no longer two, but one flesh. ⁹What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.”

¹⁰In the house, his disciples asked him again about the same matter. ¹¹He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her. ¹²If a woman herself divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”

²⁸When Jesus had finished saying these things, the multitudes were astonished at his teaching,