1 Then He arose from there and came to the region of Judea by the other side of the Jordan. And multitudes gathered to Him again, and as He was accustomed, He taught them again.
2 The Pharisees came and asked Him, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” testing Him.
3 And He answered and said to them, “What did Moses command you?”
4 They said, “Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce, and to dismiss her.”
5 And Jesus answered and said to them, “Because of the hardness of your heart he wrote you this precept.
6 But from the beginning of the creation, God ‘made them male and female.’
7 ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife,
8 and the two shall become one flesh’; so then they are no longer two, but one flesh.
9 Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.”
10 In the house His disciples also asked Him again about the same matter.
11 So He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her.
12 And if a woman divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”
Also found in Matthew 19:1-12.
from there (v.1) — Jesus left Galilee for the last time until after His resurrection. From here on, each step took Him closer to the cross.
multitudes gathered (v.1) — The simple verb means “to betake one’s self, to go to some place.” Thus, it refers to someone going on a journey. The prefixed preposition means “with,” making the compound verb to mean “to go with someone on a journey.” There were many caravans going to Jerusalem. Many of the people were followers of the Lord Jesus. Others were kindly disposed towards Him. These joined our Lord and His disciples along the road. As they journeyed along together, the Lord Jesus kept on teaching them. — Wuest, page 194.
testing (v.2) = putting to the test for the purpose of discovering what good or evil, what power or weakness is in a person or thing.
The Pharisees were not attempting to influence our Lord to do evil They were trying to put Him to the test as a teacher. They wanted Him to commit Himself on the law of Moses. Their purpose was an ulterior one. If they could show that He was unorthodox, that would put Him in an unfavorable light with the people. … The question [they asked] appears to have been already answered during the Galilean ministry (Matthew 5:31-32) on an occasion when probably no Pharisees were present. They may have heard a rumor as to His view of the matter and wished to verify it, but it is unlikely that they hoped to draw Him in a moment of forgetfulness into a denial of His earlier teaching. Rather, they expected a negative reply, and were prepared to turn it to their own purposes. It might be used to excite the anger of Antipas, who had put away his first wife and married again; more probably their intention was simply to place Him in apparent opposition to Moses. — Wuest, page 195.
divorce (v.2) = lit. “release,” repudiate
Moses (v.3) — Here Jesus has in view, not what Moses allowed in Deuteronomy 24:1, but what he in Genesis enjoined as the ideal state of things (Moses from the Jewish point of view, author of the Pentateuch and all its legislation). They naturally supposed He had in view the former. The use of the word “command” by our Lord, shows [that He was referring to the command in Genesis]. — Wuest, page 195.
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The Lord does not deny that Moses permitted divorce; command it he did not. The commandment consisted of “regulations tending to limit it and preclude its abuse.” No such regulations would have been necessary but for the hardness which had been innate in the Hebrew people from the first. The purpose of the legislation of Deuteronomy was to check this disposition, not to give it head; and for the Pharisees to shelter themselves under the temporary recognition of a necessary evil was to confess that they had not outgrown the moral stature of their fathers. — Wuest, page 196.
hardness of heart (v.5) — insensibility to the call of God, withering of the moral nature due to unbelief
from the beginning (v.6) — referring back to the commands on marriage in Genesis 2:24.
leave (v.7) = leave behind, depart from, forsake
be joined (v.7) = cleave, glue to, join one’s self to, stick to — joining and remaining joined.
joined together (v.9) = fastened to one yoke, yoked together, united
asked (v.10) — continuing action. They plied Him with questions.
Of simple divorce the Lord has spoken sufficiently; it is a dissolution of the divinely constituted union. He deals now with the case of marriage after divorce, and pronounces it adultery. — Wuest, page 197.
against her (v.11) = in reference to her, to the prejudice of her
It may be helpful to read what Paul wrote about divorce in the Age of Grace (1 Corinthians 7:10-16). There can be no question that God does not want married people to divorce. But for those who have … there is grace.