Ver. 1. And came into the coasts of Judea] Upon the news of Lazarus his friend’s sickness, John 11:8, with the hazard of his life, he came far on foot to the help of his friend. Much water cannot quench love. And this was our Saviour’s last journey toward Jerusalem, to the which he steeled his face with fortitude, and was even straitened, or pained, till it were accomplished. So was that martyr, who (because he seemed at his lodging to be somewhat troubled, and was therefore asked by one how he did?) answered, In very deed I am in prison till I be in prison. το προσωπον αυτου εστηριξε, Luke 9:51 12:50, συνεχομαι.
Ver. 2. And great multitudes followed him] Though he were then to die. For all that follows from this Mt. 19-24, seems to be a relation, of the acts of the last three months of his life. Follow God, was a moral precept of the heathen sages, τοις θεοις επου, who therein placed the safety and happiness of a man. Magnus est animas qui se Deo tradidit, Great is the spirit that surrenders himself to God, saith Seneca. He is a brave man that follows God through thick and thin, through whatsoever hardship.
Ver. 3. Is it lawful for a man, &c.] A captious question, purposely to put him to shame or peril before the people. For if he liked divorce, the better sort would be offended and displeased; if he disliked it, the common sort (those that followed him), for denying them that liberty that Moses had allowed them. One thing that created Jeremiah so much trouble among the people of his time, was, that he persuaded them to the yielding up of the city to the Chaldeans, which Isaiah had so earnestly dissuaded them, not long before, in the days of King Hezekiah.
Ver. 4. And he answered and said unto them] Our Saviour would not divide the inheritance, when required to it, Luke 12:13, but he would decide controversies touching divorces; for in marriage matters many cases of conscience fall out fit to be determined by the minister, whose lips should both preserve and present knowledge to the people, whose house for this cause should be always open, as the Aediles’ house in Rome was to all comers.
Ver. 5. And said, For this cause, &c.] Dixit, duxit, benedixit He ordered, he commaned, he blessed these three things are said by Moses to have been done by God in the institution, and for the honour of marriage; to the which still (saith Bifield on 1 Peter 3:2) God beareth so great respect, as that he is pleased to bear with, cover, and not impute the many frailties, follies, vanities, weaknesses, and wickednesses that are found between man and wife. For this cause shall a man leave father] viz., In regard of cohabitation, not of sustentation; Relinquet cubile patris et matris, as the Chaldee rightly interprets it, Genesis 2:24. And this was the first prophecy that was ever uttered in the world (saith Tertullian and Beda), venerable therefore for its antiquity; like as is also that first hexameter, made by Phemonoe, in the year of the world 2580 (1424 BC). Συμφερετε πτερατ οιωνοι κηρον τε μελισσαι. And shall cleave to his wife] Gr. Be glued to her, προσκολληθησεται. A table will often cleave in the whole wood, before it will part asunder where it is glued. A husband ought to be as firm to his wife as to himself. [See Trapp on “Ge 2:24”] And they twain shall be one flesh] This is point blank against polygamy, which yet Anabaptists would bring in again, and Turks allow of. They learned it of Lamech, qui primus unam costam in duas divisit, who was the first polygamist, saith Jerome, but had soon enough of it. So had Jacob, Elkanah, and other holy men of old, who lived and died in this sin of polygamy, and merely through mistake, as it is thought, of that text, Leviticus 18:16 “Thou shalt not take a wife to her sister, to vex her,” i.e. Thou shalt not superinduce one wife to another. Now the Fathers took the word (sister) for one so by blood, which was spoken of a sister by nation, as those clauses (to vex her) and (during her life) do evince.
Ver. 6. They are no more twain] A man’s wife is himself, εαυτον, Ephesians 5:28 (as is likewise a man’s country, Luke 4:23, to cure his country is to cure himself), and they twain, saith our Saviour in the former verse, shall be εις σαρκα μιαν, into one flesh. The man misseth his rib, and the woman would be in her old place again, under the man’s arm or wing; hence no rest till they be re-united and concorporated. “My daughter,” said Naomi to Ruth, “should I not seek rest for thee, that it may be well with thee?” Ruth 3:1. Why, then, should there be divorces for light matters? why should there be beating of wives, and laying upon them (as some) with their unmanly fists? Did ever any man “hate his own flesh,” Ephesians 5:29, or but hide his eyes from it? Isaiah 58:7, how much less tear it with his teeth, and pull it away piecemeal, unless it were mad demoniacs and rash divorcers? Christ, the best husband, hates putting away, Malachi 2:16; yea, though never so much provoked to it, Jeremiah 3:1 Job 13:1, he will not do it.