Matthew 19:1-12 - On Divorce

¹ When Jesus had finished this discourse, He left Galilee and went into the district of Judea that is on the other side of the Jordan. ² And great crowds thronged after Him, and He cured them there. ³ And some Pharisees came up to Him, to try Him out with the question, "Is it right for a man to divorce his wife for any cause?"

⁴ And He answered, "Have you not read that the Creator at the beginning made them male and female, ⁵ and said, 'For this reason a man must leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two of them must be one!'

⁶ So they are no longer two but one. Therefore, what God has joined together man must stop separating."

⁷ Then they asked Him, "Why did Moses command us to give a written divorce charge, and in this way to divorce a wife?"

⁸ He answered them, "It was because of your moral perversity that Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but it was not so from the beginning. ⁹ I tell you, whoever divorces his wife for any other cause than her unfaithfulness, and marries another woman, commits adultery."

¹⁰ The disciples said to Him, "If that is a man's relation to his wife, there is no advantage in getting married."

¹¹ He said to them, "It is not every man who has the capacity to carry out this saying, but it is for those to whom the capacity has been given. ¹² For some are born incapable of marriage, and some have been made so by men, and some have made themselves so for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let him accept it who can."

¹ Then He left there and went through the district of Judea and crossed the Jordan, and crowds of people again met around Him, and again He began to teach them, as His custom was. ² Some Pharisees came up, and to test Him they began to ask Him whether a man should be allowed to divorce his wife.

³ And He answered them by asking, "What has Moses commanded you about it?"

⁴ They answered, "Moses allowed a man to divorce his wife, if he wrote out a divorce charge."

⁵ But Jesus said to them, "It was due to your moral perversity that Moses wrote that command in your law. ⁶ But from the beginning of the creation, 'God made them male and female.

⁷ Therefore, a man must leave his father and mother, ⁸ and he and his wife must become one,' so they are no longer two but one. ⁹ Therefore, what God has joined together man must stop separating."

¹⁰ On reaching the house the disciples again asked Him about this. ¹¹ So He said to them, "If any man divorces his wife to marry another woman, he commits adultery against his former wife, ¹² and if any woman divorces her husband to marry another man, she commits adultery."

¹⁸ Any man who divorces his wife to marry another woman commits adultery, and the man who marries the woman divorced from her husband commits adultery.