Bible verses about marriage
Scripture says less about weddings than about what happens afterwards, and rather more to the party holding the power than the household codes are usually quoted as saying. These are the passages a marriage is actually argued from, each with a sentence on what it claims.
Therefore a man will leave his father and his mother, and will join with his wife, and they will be one flesh. — Genesis 2:24 · WEB
The first thing called not good is a man alone, and the remedy is made from him and brought to him.
So that they are no more two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, don’t let man tear apart.” — Matthew 19:6 · WEB
Asked to take a side in a divorce debate, he goes back past Moses to the garden — and his disciples are appalled.
Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the assembly and gave himself up for her, — Ephesians 5:25 · WEB
The longer and harder instruction goes to the party holding the power, and the model given is a death.
Nevertheless each of you must also love his own wife even as himself; and let the wife see that she respects her husband. — Ephesians 5:33 · WEB
The oldest sentence about marriage is quoted and then said to be about something else as well, and the chapter ends by returning to two ordinary people.
Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah’s tent, and took Rebekah, and she became his wife. He loved her. So Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death. — Genesis 24:67 · WEB
The two meet in a field at evening, and the chapter closes on a sentence Scripture has not said before.
Many waters can’t quench love, neither can floods drown it. If a man would give all the wealth of his house for love, he would be utterly scorned. — Song of Solomon 8:7 · WEB
The book's thesis arrives at its close: love measured against death and the grave, priced beyond purchase, and lit by a flame the versions read differently.
Love is patient and is kind. Love doesn’t envy. Love doesn’t brag, is not proud, — 1 Corinthians 13:4 · WEB
Love is defined by what it does and refuses to do, and almost every item on the list names something the Corinthians were doing.
Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor. — Ecclesiastes 4:9 · WEB
Four practical arguments for company answer the solitary man of the previous verse, and then a success story is followed forward until it too is forgotten.
Husbands, love your wives, and don’t be bitter against them. — Colossians 3:19 · WEB
The household code addresses both parties, and the command to the one with power is the harder of the two.
You husbands, in the same way, live with your wives according to knowledge, giving honor to the woman as to the weaker vessel, as also being joint heirs of the grace of life, that your prayers may not be hindered. — 1 Peter 3:7 · WEB
One verse to the husbands, and it carries the only sanction in the household section.
Who can find a worthy woman? For her value is far above rubies. — Proverbs 31:10 · WEB
The book ends with an alphabet, and the woman it spells out is the wisdom of chapters 1 to 9 living in a household.
Unless Yahweh builds the house, they who build it labor in vain. Unless Yahweh watches over the city, the watchman guards it in vain. — Psalm 127:1 · WEB
Builders, watchmen and the anxious early riser are all told the same thing, and then children are called arrows.
Don’t be unequally yoked with unbelievers, for what fellowship do righteousness and iniquity have? Or what fellowship does light have with darkness? — 2 Corinthians 6:14 · WEB
The image is of two animals mismatched under one yoke, and five questions press the same objection before any promise is offered.
Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the bed be undefiled; but God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterers. — Hebrews 13:4 · WEB
In love of the brothers be tenderly affectionate to one another; in honor prefer one another, — Romans 12:10 · WEB
Whoever finds a wife finds a good thing, and obtains favor of Yahweh. — Proverbs 18:22 · WEB