And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery.
| Word | Greek | Strong’s | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| And | δὲ de | G1161 | but · conjunction |
| I say | Λέγω Legō | G3004 | properly · verb — present active indicative, 1st person singular |
| unto you | ὑμῖν hymîn | G5213 | to (with or by) you |
| Whosoever | ὃς hos | G3739 | the relatively (sometimes demonstrative) pronoun · relative pronoun — nominative singular masculine |
| shall put away | ἀπολύσῃ apolusē | G630 | to free fully · verb — aorist active subjunctive, 3rd person singular |
| his | αὐτοῦ autou | G846 | the reflexive pronoun self · personal pronoun — genitive singular masculine |
| wife | γυναῖκα gunaika | G1135 | a woman · noun — accusative singular feminine |
| except | εἰ ei | G1487 | if |
| for | ἐπὶ epi | G1909 | properly · preposition |
| fornication | πορνείᾳ porneia | G4202 | harlotry (including adultery and incest) · noun — dative singular feminine |
| and | καὶ kai | G2532 | and · conjunction |
| shall marry | γαμήσῃ gamēsē | G1060 | to wed (of either sex) · verb — aorist active subjunctive, 3rd person singular |
| another | ἄλλην, allēn | G243 | "else · adjective — accusative singular feminine |
| committeth adultery | μοιχᾶται. moichatai | G3429 | (middle voice) to commit adultery · verb — present middle or passive deponent indicative, 3rd person singular |
| and | καὶ kai | G2532 | and · conjunction |
| whoso marrieth | γαμήσας gamēsas | G1060 | to wed (of either sex) · verb — aorist active participle, nominative singular masculine |
| her which is put away | ἀπολελυμένην apolelumenēn | G630 | to free fully · verb — perfect passive participle, accusative singular feminine |
| doth commit adultery | μοιχᾶται.¶ moichatai | G3429 | (middle voice) to commit adultery · verb — present middle or passive deponent indicative, 3rd person singular |
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).
And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except, &c.--See on Mat 5:31.
And I say unto you,.... To his disciples, when they were with him alone in the house, and asked him more particularly about the subject, concerning which he had been discoursing with the Pharisees, as Mark observes, Mark 10:10 when he said to them much the same things, he had delivered before in Matthew 5:32 whosoever shall put away in his wife; separate her from his person, house and bed, and dismiss her as his wife, no more to be considered in that relation to him, except it be for fornication; or whoredom, for defiling his bed: for this is not to be understood of fornication committed before, but of uncleanness after marriage, which destroys their being one flesh: and shall marry anoth…
Read the whole note in the consoleMatthew 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 consoleJesus permits only one legitimate reason for a man to divorce: if his wife has been unfaithful (see 5:32). In the face of those who thought divorce could be taken lightly, Jesus affirms God’s created order: Marriage was designed to be permanent (see Mark 10:11-12). • commits adultery: This speaks only of the man who divorces his wife unlawfully. In such a case, his remarriage is adulterous. Jesus’ motivation is to reestablish the permanency of marriage.
If a layman divorces his own wife, and takes another, or one divorced by another, let him be suspended.
There is then but one carnal cause why a wife should be put away, that is, fornication, and but one spiritual, that is, the fear of God. But there is no cause why while she who has been put away is alive, another should be married.
(De Conjug. Adult. ii. 9.) For a reunion of the wedlock, even after actual commission of adultery, is neither shameful nor difficult, where there is an undoubted remission of sin through the keys of the kingdom of heaven; not that after being divorced from her husband an adulteress should be called back again, but that after her union with Christ she should no longer be called an adulteress.
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).
