Matthew 19:1-9 ▼

1 WHEN Jesus had finished these sayings, he departed from Galilee, and came to the border of Judaea, at the crossing of the Jordan.

2 And a great many people followed him, and he healed them there.

3 And the Pharisees came up to him and were tempting him and saying, Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause?

4 But he answered and said to them, Have you not read, that he who made from the beginning, made them male and female?

5 And he said, Because of this, a man shall leave his father and his mother, and shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall be one flesh.

6 Henceforth they are not two, but one body; therefore what God has joined together, man must not separate.

7 They said to him, Why then did Moses command to give a letter of separation and then divorce her?

8 He said to them, Moses, considering the hardness of your heart, gave you permission to divorce your wives; but from the beginning it was not so.

9 But I say to you, Whoever leaves his wife without a charge of adultery and marries another commits adultery; and he who marries a woman thus separated commits adultery.