6 So they are no longer two but one flesh. ^wWhat therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”

14 ^xBut you say, “Why does he not?” Because the Lord ^ywas witness between you and the wife of your youth, ^zto whom ^tyou have been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant.

9 ^jWhat therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”

2 For ^ea married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage.¹

Released from the Law

1 Or do you not know, brothers¹—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives?

10 To the married ^fI give this charge (not I, but the Lord): ^gthe wife should not separate from her husband 11 (but if she does, ^hshe should remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband), and ^gthe husband should not divorce his wife.

12 To the rest I say (I, not the Lord) that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he should not divorce her. 13 If any woman has a husband who is an unbeliever, and he consents to live with her, she should not divorce him. 14 For the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband. ⁱOtherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy.

28 In the same way ^mhusbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.

4 ^yLet marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge ^zthe sexually immoral and adulterous.