Pronouns in this sentence
This is a little passage from the bible. I am questioning why the grammer in this section is the way it is. If anyone could help it would be appreciated.
Jesús les dijo-
Precisamente por lo tercos que son ustedes, moisés les permitió divorciarse de su esposa.
Why is there an indirect object pronoun used here. I know why the one is used with " dijo" because in the verb decir it is always assumed that the direct object is there. But the one I'm having trouble trying to understand is the one that says......moisés les permitió. I just don't understand why it doesn't use a direct object because it is saying ......he permitted you to divorce.
Could someone explain this
4 Answers
In Spain (the Bible uses Spain Spanish), they use le/les as a direct object as well, to mean him, you (formal) / they, you (formal, plural).
Permitir can both take an indirect or direct object depending upon what follows the verb. Permitir a alguien hacer algo (To allow someone to do something). In this case, permitirle o permitirles as in your example if you choose to omit the subject and use the indirect pronoun instead.
You can also allow something. Permitir la entrada. In this case you can use permitirla.
I don't think it's leismo, I think it's because the sentence has both a direct and indirect object.
The direct object of "permitir" is "divorciarse de sus esposas" and the indirect object is "les".
A little more info on "leísmo" is here
