4. They replied, Moses allowed a man to write a bill of divorce and to put her away. [Deut. 24:1-4.]
5. But Jesus said to them, Because of your hardness of heart [your condition of insensibility to the call of God] he wrote you this precept in your Law.
6. But from the beginning of creation God made them male and female. [Gen. 1:27; 5:2.]
7. For this reason a man shall leave [behind] his father and his mother and be joined to his wife and cleave closely to her permanently,
8. And the two shall become one flesh, so that they are no longer two, but one flesh. [Gen. 2:24.]
9. What therefore God has united (joined together), let not man separate or divide.
10. And indoors the disciples questioned Him again about this subject.
11. And He said to them, Whoever dismisses (repudiates and divorces) his wife and marries another commits adultery against her;
12. And if a woman dismisses (repudiates and divorces) her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.
13. And they kept bringing young children to Him that He might touch them, and the disciples were reproving them [for it].
14. But when Jesus saw [it], He was indignant and pained and said to them, Allow the children to come to Me–do not forbid or prevent or hinder them–for to such belongs the kingdom of God.
15. Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive and accept and welcome the kingdom of God like a little child [does] positively shall not enter it at all.
16. And He took them [the children up one by one] in His arms and [fervently invoked a] blessing, placing His hands upon them.