They say unto him, Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away?
| Word | Greek | Strong’s | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| say | Λέγουσιν Legousin | G3004 | properly · verb — present active indicative, 3rd person plural |
| him | αὐτῷ· autō | G846 | the reflexive pronoun self · personal pronoun — dative singular masculine |
| Why | τί ti | G5101 | an interrogative pronoun · interrogative pronoun — accusative singular neuter |
| did | ἐνετείλατο eneteilato | G1781 | to enjoin · verb — aorist middle deponent indicative, 3rd person singular |
| Moses | Μωϋσῆς Mōusēs | G3475 | Moseus · noun — nominative singular masculine, a proper name |
| then | οὖν oun | G3767 | (adverbially) certainly · conjunction |
| command | ἐντέλλομαι entéllomai | G1781 | to enjoin |
| give | δοῦναι dounai | G1325 | to give (used in a very wide application · verb — second aorist active infinitive |
| writing | βιβλίον biblion | G975 | a roll · noun — accusative singular neuter |
| divorcement | ἀποστασίου apostasiou | G647 | properly · noun — genitive singular neuter |
| and | καὶ kai | G2532 | and · conjunction |
| put | ἀπολῦσαι apolusai | G630 | to free fully · verb — aorist active infinitive |
| her | αὐτήν;¶ autēn | G846 | the reflexive pronoun self · personal pronoun — accusative singular feminine |
| away | ἀπολύω apolýō | G630 | to free fully |
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
They say unto him, Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away?
They say unto him,.... That is the Pharisees, who object the law of Moses to him, hoping hereby to ensnare him, and expose him to the resentment of the people, should he reject that, as they supposed he would; why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement, and put her away? referring to Deuteronomy 24:1 which they thought to be a contradiction, and what they knew not how to reconcile to the doctrine Christ had delivered, concerning the original institution of marriage, and the close union there is between a man and his wife, by virtue of it, and which is not to be dissolved by men. Concerning a writing of divorcement and the form, and manner of it; see Gill on Matthew 5:31
Matthew 19:3-9 Matthew 19:3-9 Mark 10:2-12 3. And the Pharisees came to him, tempting him, and saying to him, Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause whatever? 4. Who answering said to them, Have you not read, that he who made them at first, [593] made them male and female? 5. And he said, Therefore shall a man leave his father and mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall be one flesh. 6. Therefore now they are not two, but one flesh: what God therefore hath joined, let not man separate. 7. They say to him, Why then did Moses order to give a letter of divorcement, and send her away? 8. He said to them, Moses, for the hardness of your heart, permitted you to divor…
Read the whole note in the consolewhy did Moses say (literally command): The Pharisees thought Jesus had contradicted a command of the law (see Deut 24:1-4), but Moses permitted divorce only as a concession to their hard hearts. Jesus introduced the revolutionary principle that God’s permission is not necessarily his desire (see 1 Cor 6:12). Divorce is never God’s desire (Mal 2:14-16); it is an expression of human sin.
Here they reveal the cavil which they had prepared; albeit the Lord had not given sentence of Himself, but had recalled to their minds ancient history, and the commands of God.
(Verse 7) They said to him, 'So why did Moses command us to give a bill of divorce and dismiss?' They open the trap they had prepared. And certainly the Lord had not given his own opinion, but had remembered the old history and commandments of God.
This sentence of chastity seemed hard to these adulterers; but they could not make answer to the argument. Howbeit, they will not submit to the truth, but betake themselves for shelter to Moses, as men having a bad cause fly to some powerful personage, that where justice is not, his countenance may prevail; They say unto him, Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away?
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Henry, Jamieson-Fausset-Brown, Clarke, Gill, Calvin and Keil & Delitzsch are in the public domain; Tyndale Open Study Notes © Tyndale House Publishers, CC BY-SA 4.0 — all from the Free Use Bible API (bible.helloao.org). Rashi: the Rosenbaum & Silbermann Pentateuch (public domain) and the Judaica Press and Metsudah Tanakh (CC BY), via Sefaria. Spurgeon's Treasury of David: public domain (lyteword's markdown edition, CC0).
