19:8a–b

In the Greek, the reason (“your hardness of heart”) comes before the result (“Moses permitted you to divorce your wives”). In some languages, it will be more natural to change the order and put the reason after the result, as the Berean Standard Bible does. In other languages, it will be more natural to follow the Greek and put the reason first. For example:

8bBecause of your hardness of heart 8aMoses allowed you to divorce your wives (English Standard Version)

In other languages, it will be more natural to say something like:

You hearts were hard. That is why Moses permitted you to divorce your wives.

19:8a

Moses permitted you: Here the word Moses refers to the law which Moses received from God and wrote down long ago. In some languages, it may be natural to make this explicit. For example:

⌊In the law,⌋ Moses allowed/permitted you

to divorce your wives: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible here translates as divorce is the same word that it translates as “send away” in 19:7b. It means to break the bond of marriage.

19:8b

because of: The words because of indicate that 19:8b is a reason clause.

Here are some other ways to introduce this reason clause:

It was on account of
-or-
It was because of

your hardness of heart: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as hardness of heart is an idiom. This idiom refers to a person’s sinful attitude. For Jews in Jesus’ time, the heart was the place where emotions were experienced. The expression “hard heart” indicates that the person cannot respond to God as he should. It indicates stubbornness and disobedience.

If you have this same idiom in your language, or if this idiom would be understandable in your language as is, then use it. Otherwise, if you have a similar idiom for stubbornness and disobedience, then you may consider using that.

Here are some other ways to translate this clause:

you were stubborn
-or-
you refused to accept God’s teaching (New Century Version)
-or-
you always refuse to obey ⌊God⌋

19:8c

but it was not this way: The pronoun it refers to the permission for divorce. The whole clause means that the permission for divorce was added after God created people, because of sin. It was not the way God intended things to be.

Here are some other ways to translate this clause:

it was not so (English Standard Version)
-or-
it was not like that (Good News Translation)
-or-
divorce was not allowed (New Century Version)

from the beginning: This phrase refers to “the beginning of the world” or “the beginning of creation.” It refers to the words that Jesus said in 19:4b. There he talked about the creation of man and woman in “the beginning.”

Here are some other ways to translate this clause:

at the time of creation (Good News Translation)
-or-
in the beginning of the world

-or-

at first

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