Matthew 19:1-10

Teaching About Divorce

1 Now when Jesus had finished these sayings, he went away from ¹Galilee and ²entered ³the region of Judea beyond the Jordan.

2 And ⁴large crowds followed him, and he healed them there.

3 And Pharisees came up to him and ⁵tested him by asking, ⁶"Is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause?"

4 He answered, ⁷"Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female,

5 and said, ⁸'Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and ⁹the two shall become one flesh'?

6 So they are no longer two but one flesh. ¹⁰What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate."

7 They said to him, ¹¹"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 ¹²hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.

9 ¹³And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery."^[a]

10 The disciples said to him, "If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry."

Cross References

• 1. Matthew 17:24
• 2. For ver. 1-9, see Mark 10:1-12
• 3. Luke 9:51; Luke 17:11; John 10:40; [Matthew 4:25]
• 4. Matthew 12:15
• 5. John 8:6
• 6. Matthew 5:31
• 7. Genesis 1:27; Genesis 2:18, 21-23; Genesis 5:2; [Matthew 21:16]
• 8. Ephesians 5:31; Cited from Genesis 2:24
• 9. 1 Corinthians 6:16; [Malachi 2:15]
• 10. 1 Corinthians 7:10
• 11. Deuteronomy 24:1-4
• 12. Mark 16:14; [Mark 3:5; Mark 6:52; Hebrews 3:8]
• 13. See Matthew 5:32

Footnotes

• [a]. Some manuscripts add and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery; other manuscripts except for sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery