Matthew 19:1-12

Modern English Version

Teaching About Divorce^(A)

19 Now when Jesus finished these sayings, He departed from Galilee and came into the region of Judea beyond the Jordan. ² Large crowds followed Him, and He healed them there.

³ The Pharisees also came to Him, tempting Him and saying, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason?”

⁴ He answered, “Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’^{[a] 5} and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’^[b]? ⁶ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no man put asunder.”

⁷ They said to Him, “Then why did Moses command to give a certificate of divorce, and to send her away?”^[c]

⁸ He said to them, “Moses, for the hardness of your hearts, permitted you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. ⁹ But I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery. And whoever marries her who is divorced commits adultery.”

¹⁰ His disciples said to Him, “If such is the case of the man with his wife, it is not good to marry.”

¹¹ But He said to them, “Not all men can receive this precept, but only those to whom it is given. ¹² For there are some eunuchs who have been so from birth, there are some eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men, and there are some eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. He who is able to receive this, let him receive it.”