Matthew 19:6

What therefore God hath joined together] Our Lord takes up higher ground than either school. He goes behind the Law of Moses, which was in many cases a concession to Jewish infirmities and prejudices, to God's original intention at the creation of the human race, and declares this to be more venerable than the written Law, which the Jewish schools idolised. See further on Matthew 5:31; Matthew 5:32.

7. A writing of divorcement] see Deuteronomy 24:1. Jewish divorces were always from the bond of marriage, so that both parties could marry again, unless the husband specially restrained the wife's liberty in that respect. Divorces were thus worded: 'I N. have put away, dismissed, and expelled thee N., who heretofore wast my wife. But now I have dismissed thee, so that thou art free, and in thy own power, to marry whosoever shall please thee; and let no man hinder thee. And let this be to thee a bill of rejection from me according to the Law of Moses and Israel.

'Reuben, the son of Jacob, witness.

'Eliezer, the son of Gilead, witness' (from J. Lightfoot).