Mat 19:4-9 | JFB | STEP | 4. And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female-- or better, perhaps, "He that made them made them from the beginning a male and a female."

‏ Matthew 19:4-9

4. And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female--or better, perhaps, "He that made them made them from the beginning a male and a female."

5. And said, For this cause--to follow out this divine appointment.

shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh?--Jesus here sends them back to the original constitution of man as one pair, a male and a female; to their marriage, as such, by divine appointment; and to the purpose of God, expressed by the sacred historian, that in all time one man and one woman should by marriage become one flesh--so to continue as long as both are in the flesh. This being God's constitution, let not man break it up by causeless divorces.

7. They say unto him, Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away?

8. He saith unto them, Moses--as a civil lawgiver.

because of--or "having respect to."

the hardness of your hearts--looking to your low moral state, and your inability to endure the strictness of the original law.

suffered you to put away your wives--tolerated a relaxation of the strictness of the marriage bond--not as approving of it, but to prevent still greater evils.

But from the beginning it was not so--This is repeated, in order to impress upon His audience the temporary and purely civil character of this Mosaic relaxation.

9. And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except, &c.--See on Mt 5:32.