Matthew 19:7

7 They said to him, "Why then did Moses command [us] to give a document--a certificate of divorce--and to divorce her?"

Matthew 19:7 Meaning and Commentary

Matthew 19:7

They say unto him
That is the Pharisees, who object the law of Moses to him, hoping hereby to ensnare him, and expose him to the resentment of the people, should he reject that, as they supposed he would;

why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement, and
put her away?
referring to ( Deuteronomy 24:1 ) which they thought to be a contradiction, and what they knew not how to reconcile to the doctrine Christ had delivered, concerning the original institution of marriage, and the close union there is between a man and his wife, by virtue of it, and which is not to be dissolved by men. Concerning a writing of divorcement and the form, and manner of it, (See Gill on Matthew 5:31)

Matthew 19:7 In-Context

5 and said, 'On account of this a man will leave his father and his mother and will be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh'?

6 So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, man must not separate."

7 They said to him, "Why then did Moses command [us] to give a document--a certificate of divorce--and to divorce her?"

8 He said to them, "Moses, with reference to your hardness of heart, permitted you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not like this.

9 Now I say to you that whoever divorces his wife, except on the basis of sexual immorality, and marries another commits adultery, and whoever marries her who is divorced commits adultery."

Footnotes

• [a]. *Here the direct object is supplied from context in the English translation