2 Large crowds followed him, and he healed them there.
3 Some Pharisees came to him to test him. They asked, ‘Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?’
4 ‘Haven’t you read,’ he replied, ‘that at the beginning the Creator “made them male and female,”
5 and said, “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh”?
6 So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.’
7 ‘Why then,’ they asked, ‘did Moses command that a man give his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away?’
8 Jesus replied, ‘Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning.