602 verses about Marriage

Samson’s wife wept before him, and said, “You just hate me, and don’t love me. You’ve told a riddle to the children of my people, and haven’t told it to me.” He said to her, “Behold, I haven’t told my father or my mother, so why should I tell you?”

But after a while, in the time of wheat harvest, Samson visited his wife with a young goat. He said, “I will go in to my wife’s room.” But her father wouldn’t allow him to go in.

Her father said, “I most certainly thought that you utterly hated her; therefore I gave her to your companion. Isn’t her younger sister more beautiful than she? Please take her, instead.”

His concubine played the prostitute against him, and went away from him to her father’s house to Bethlehem Judah, and was there for four months.

His father-in-law, the young lady’s father, kept him there; and he stayed with him three days. So they ate and drank, and stayed there.

How shall we provide wives for those who remain, since we have sworn by Yahweh that we will not give them of our daughters to wives?”

The children of Benjamin did so, and took wives for themselves, according to their number, of those who danced, whom they carried off. They went and returned to their inheritance, built the cities, and lived in them.

They took for themselves wives of the women of Moab. The name of the one was Orpah, and the name of the other was Ruth. They lived there about ten years.

May Yahweh grant you that you may find rest, each of you in the house of her husband.” Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voices, and wept.

Go back, my daughters, go your way; for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say, ‘I have hope,’ if I should even have a husband tonight, and should also bear sons;

He said, “Who are you?” She answered, “I am Ruth your servant. Therefore spread the corner of your garment over your servant; for you are a near kinsman.”

Moreover Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of Mahlon, I have purchased to be my wife, to raise up the name of the dead on his inheritance, that the name of the dead may not be cut off from among his brothers, and from the gate of his place. You are witnesses today.”

All the people who were in the gate, and the elders, said, “We are witnesses. May Yahweh make the woman who has come into your house like Rachel and like Leah, which both built the house of Israel; and treat you worthily in Ephrathah, and be famous in Bethlehem.

So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife; and he went in to her, and Yahweh enabled her to conceive, and she bore a son.

He had two wives. The name of one was Hannah, and the name of other Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children.

Elkanah her husband said to her, “Hannah, why do you weep? Why don’t you eat? Why is your heart grieved? Am I not better to you than ten sons?”

They rose up in the morning early, and worshiped before Yahweh, and returned, and came to their house to Ramah. Then Elkanah knew Hannah his wife; and Yahweh remembered her.

Saul said to David, “Behold, my elder daughter Merab, I will give her to you as wife. Only be valiant for me, and fight Yahweh’s battles.” For Saul said, “Don’t let my hand be on him, but let the hand of the Philistines be on him.”

But at the time when Merab, Saul’s daughter, should have been given to David, she was given to Adriel the Meholathite as wife.

Michal, Saul’s daughter, loved David; and they told Saul, and the thing pleased him.

Saul commanded his servants, “Talk with David secretly, and say, ‘Behold, the king has delight in you, and all his servants love you. Now therefore be the king’s son-in-law.’”

When his servants told David these words, it pleased David well to be the king’s son-in-law. Before the deadline,

David arose and went, he and his men, and killed two hundred men of the Philistines. Then David brought their foreskins, and they gave them in full number to the king, that he might be the king’s son-in-law. Then Saul gave him Michal his daughter as wife.

Saul sent messengers to David’s house, to watch him, and to kill him in the morning. Michal, David’s wife, told him, saying, “If you don’t save your life tonight, tomorrow you will be killed.”

When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, “Blessed is Yahweh, who has pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal, and has kept back his servant from evil. Yahweh has returned the evildoing of Nabal on his own head.” David sent and spoke concerning Abigail, to take her to himself as wife.

When David’s servants had come to Abigail to Carmel, they spoke to her, saying, “David has sent us to you, to take you to him as wife.”

Abigail hurried, and arose, and rode on a donkey, with five ladies of hers who followed her; and she went after the messengers of David, and became his wife.

David also took Ahinoam of Jezreel; and they both became his wives.

So David went up there with his two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite.

David sent messengers to Ishbosheth, Saul’s son, saying, “Deliver me my wife Michal, whom I was given to marry for one hundred foreskins of the Philistines.”

Ishbosheth sent and took her from her husband, even from Paltiel the son of Laish.

When the mourning was past, David sent and took her home to his house, and she became his wife, and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased Yahweh.

Why have you despised Yahweh’s word, to do that which is evil in his sight? You have struck Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and have taken his wife to be your wife, and have slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon.

Now therefore the sword will never depart from your house, because you have despised me, and have taken Uriah the Hittite’s wife to be your wife.’

He said, “Please speak to Solomon the king (for he will not tell you ‘no’), that he give me Abishag the Shunammite as wife.”

She said, “Let Abishag the Shunammite be given to Adonijah your brother as wife.”

Solomon made an alliance with Pharaoh king of Egypt, and took Pharaoh’s daughter, and brought her into David’s city, until he had finished building his own house, Yahweh’s house, and the wall around Jerusalem.

Ben Abinadab, in all the height of Dor (he had Taphath, Solomon’s daughter, as wife);

Ahimaaz, in Naphtali (he also took Basemath the daughter of Solomon as wife);

His house where he was to dwell, the other court within the porch, was of the like work. He made also a house for Pharaoh’s daughter (whom Solomon had taken as wife), like this porch.

Pharaoh king of Egypt had gone up, taken Gezer, burned it with fire, killed the Canaanites who lived in the city, and given it for a wedding gift to his daughter, Solomon’s wife.

Now king Solomon loved many foreign women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites;

of the nations concerning which Yahweh said to the children of Israel, “You shall not go among them, neither shall they come among you; for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods.” Solomon joined to these in love.

He had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart.

Hadad found great favor in the sight of Pharaoh, so that he gave him as wife the sister of his own wife, the sister of Tahpenes the queen.

As if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, he took as wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and went and served Baal, and worshiped him.

But Jezebel his wife came to him, and said to him, “Why is your spirit so sad, that you eat no bread?”

Jezebel his wife said to him, “Do you now govern the kingdom of Israel? Arise, and eat bread, and let your heart be merry. I will give you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite.”

He said, “What then is to be done for her?” Gehazi answered, “Most certainly she has no son, and her husband is old.”

He walked in the way of the kings of Israel, as did Ahab’s house; for he married Ahab’s daughter. He did that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight.

Azubah died, and Caleb married Ephrath, who bore him Hur.

Afterward Hezron went in to the daughter of Machir the father of Gilead, whom he took as wife when he was sixty years old; and she bore him Segub.

Jerahmeel had another wife, whose name was Atarah. She was the mother of Onam.

Sheshan gave his daughter to Jarha his servant as wife; and she bore him Attai.

Ashhur the father of Tekoa had two wives, Helah and Naarah.

He went in to his wife, and she conceived, and bore a son, and he named him Beriah, because there was trouble with his house.

Shaharaim became the father of children in the field of Moab, after he had sent them away. Hushim and Baara were his wives.

By Hodesh his wife, he became the father of Jobab, Zibia, Mesha, Malcam,

David took more wives at Jerusalem, and David became the father of more sons and daughters.

Eleazar died, and had no sons, but daughters only: and their brothers the sons of Kish took them as wives.

Solomon brought up Pharaoh’s daughter out of David’s city to the house that he had built for her; for he said, “My wife shall not dwell in the house of David king of Israel, because the places where Yahweh’s ark has come are holy.”

Rehoboam took a wife for himself, Mahalath the daughter of Jerimoth the son of David and of Abihail the daughter of Eliab the son of Jesse.

Rehoboam loved Maacah the daughter of Absalom above all his wives and his concubines; for he took eighteen wives and sixty concubines, and became the father of twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters.

But Abijah grew mighty, and took for himself fourteen wives, and became the father of twenty-two sons, and sixteen daughters.

He walked in the way of the kings of Israel, as did Ahab’s house; for he had Ahab’s daughter as his wife. He did that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight.

Jehoiada took for him two wives, and he became the father of sons and daughters.

For they have taken of their daughters for themselves and for their sons, so that the holy offspring have mixed themselves with the peoples of the lands. Yes, the hand of the princes and rulers has been chief in this trespass.”

Now therefore don’t give your daughters to their sons. Don’t take their daughters to your sons, nor seek their peace or their prosperity forever; that you may be strong, and eat the good of the land, and leave it for an inheritance to your children forever.’

Shecaniah the son of Jehiel, one of the sons of Elam, answered Ezra, “We have trespassed against our God, and have married foreign women of the peoples of the land. Yet now there is hope for Israel concerning this thing.

Ezra the priest stood up and said to them, “You have trespassed, and have married foreign women, to increase the guilt of Israel.

Now let our princes be appointed for all the assembly, and let all those who are in our cities who have married foreign women come at appointed times, and with them the elders of every city, and its judges, until the fierce wrath of our God is turned from us, until this matter is resolved.”

They finished with all the men who had married foreign women by the first day of the first month.

Among the sons of the priests there were found who had married foreign women: of the sons of Jeshua, the son of Jozadak, and his brothers, Maaseiah, and Eliezer, and Jarib, and Gedaliah.

They gave their hand that they would put away their wives; and being guilty, they offered a ram of the flock for their guilt.

All these had taken foreign wives; and some of them had wives by whom they had children.

For there were many in Judah sworn to him, because he was the son-in-law of Shecaniah the son of Arah; and his son Jehohanan had taken the daughter of Meshullam the son of Berechiah as wife.

In those days I also saw the Jews who had married women of Ashdod, of Ammon, and of Moab;

I contended with them, and cursed them, and struck certain of them, and plucked off their hair, and made them swear by God, “You shall not give your daughters to their sons, nor take their daughters for your sons, or for yourselves.

Shall we then listen to you to do all this great evil, to trespass against our God in marrying foreign women?”

One of the sons of Joiada, the son of Eliashib the high priest, was son-in-law to Sanballat the Horonite; therefore I chased him from me.

For this deed of the queen will become known to all women, causing them to show contempt for their husbands, when it is reported, ‘King Ahasuerus commanded Vashti the queen to be brought in before him, but she didn’t come.’

Today, the princesses of Persia and Media who have heard of the queen’s deed will tell all the king’s princes. This will cause much contempt and wrath.

When the king’s decree which he shall make is published throughout all his kingdom (for it is great), all the wives will give their husbands honor, both great and small.”

for he sent letters into all the king’s provinces, into every province according to its writing, and to every people in their language, that every man should rule his own house, speaking in the language of his own people.

My breath is offensive to my wife. I am loathsome to the children of my own mother.

then let my wife grind for another, and let others sleep with her.

Kings’ daughters are among your honorable women. At your right hand the queen stands in gold of Ophir.

Your wife will be as a fruitful vine, in the innermost parts of your house; your children like olive plants, around your table.

For the lips of an adulteress drip honey. Her mouth is smoother than oil,

Drink water out of your own cistern, running water out of your own well.

Should your springs overflow in the streets, streams of water in the public squares?

Let them be for yourself alone, not for strangers with you.

Let your spring be blessed. Rejoice in the wife of your youth.

A loving doe and a graceful deer— let her breasts satisfy you at all times. Be captivated always with her love.

to keep you from the immoral woman, from the flattery of the wayward wife’s tongue.

For a prostitute reduces you to a piece of bread. The adulteress hunts for your precious life.

So is he who goes in to his neighbor’s wife. Whoever touches her will not be unpunished.

He who commits adultery with a woman is void of understanding. He who does it destroys his own soul.

For jealousy arouses the fury of the husband. He won’t spare in the day of vengeance.

For my husband isn’t at home. He has gone on a long journey.