602 verses about Marriage

Your two breasts are like two fawns, that are twins of a roe.

Your neck is like an ivory tower. Your eyes are like the pools in Heshbon by the gate of Bathrabbim. Your nose is like the tower of Lebanon which looks toward Damascus.

Your head on you is like Carmel. The hair of your head like purple. The king is held captive in its tresses.

This, your stature, is like a palm tree, your breasts like its fruit.

I am my beloved’s. His desire is toward me.

His left hand would be under my head. His right hand would embrace me.

I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem, that you not stir up, nor awaken love, until it so desires. Friends

Who is this who comes up from the wilderness, leaning on her beloved? Under the apple tree I aroused you. There your mother conceived you. There she was in labor and bore you.

My own vineyard is before me. The thousand are for you, Solomon; two hundred for those who tend its fruit. Lover

Come away, my beloved! Be like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountains of spices!

Seven women shall take hold of one man in that day, saying, “We will eat our own bread, and wear our own clothing: only let us be called by your name. Take away our reproach.”

For your Maker is your husband; Yahweh of Armies is his name. The Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer. He will be called the God of the whole earth.

For Yahweh has called you as a wife forsaken and grieved in spirit, even a wife of youth, when she is cast off,” says your God.

You will not be called Forsaken any more; nor will your land be called Desolate any more: but you will be called Hephzibah, and your land Beulah; for Yahweh delights in you, and your land will be married.

For as a young man marries a virgin, so your sons will marry you. As a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so your God will rejoice over you.

“Go, and proclaim in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, ‘Yahweh says, “I remember for you the kindness of your youth, the love of your weddings; how you went after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown.

“Can a virgin forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? Yet my people have forgotten me for days without number.

“They say, ‘If a man puts away his wife, and she goes from him, and becomes another man’s, should he return to her again?’ Wouldn’t that land be greatly polluted? But you have played the prostitute with many lovers; yet return again to me,” says Yahweh.

I saw when, for this very cause, that backsliding Israel had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a bill of divorce, yet treacherous Judah, her sister, had no fear; but she also went and played the prostitute.

“Return, backsliding children,” says Yahweh; “for I am a husband to you. I will take one of you from a city, and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion.

“Surely as a wife treacherously departs from her husband, so you have dealt treacherously with me, house of Israel,” says Yahweh.

“You shall not take a wife, neither shall you have sons or daughters, in this place.”

Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones, and the light of the lamp.

Take wives and father sons and daughters. Take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters. Multiply there, and don’t be diminished.

because they have done foolish things in Israel, and have committed adultery with their neighbors’ wives, and have spoken words in my name falsely, which I didn’t command them. I am he who knows, and am witness,” says Yahweh.

the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voice of those who say, ‘Give thanks to Yahweh of Armies, for Yahweh is good, for his loving kindness endures forever;’ who bring thanksgiving into Yahweh’s house. For I will cause the captivity of the land to be reversed as at the first,” says Yahweh.

“When we burned incense to the queen of the sky, and poured out drink offerings to her, did we make her cakes to worship her, and pour out drink offerings to her, without our husbands?”

“‘“Now when I passed by you, and looked at you, behold, your time was the time of love; and I spread my skirt over you, and covered your nakedness. Yes, I swore to you, and entered into a covenant with you,” says the Lord Yahweh, “and you became mine.

“‘“A wife who commits adultery! Who takes strangers instead of her husband!

I will judge you, as women who break wedlock and shed blood are judged; and I will bring on you the blood of wrath and jealousy.

They shall not take for their wives a widow, or her who is put away; but they shall take virgins of the offspring of the house of Israel, or a widow who is the widow of a priest.

When Yahweh spoke at first by Hosea, Yahweh said to Hosea, “Go, take for yourself a wife of prostitution and children of unfaithfulness; for the land commits great adultery, forsaking Yahweh.”

So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim; and she conceived, and bore him a son.

Contend with your mother! Contend, for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband; and let her put away her prostitution from her face, and her adulteries from between her breasts;

She will follow after her lovers, but she won’t overtake them; and she will seek them, but won’t find them. Then she will say, ‘I will go and return to my first husband; for then was it better with me than now.’

It will be in that day,” says Yahweh, “that you will call me ‘my husband,’ and no longer call me ‘my master.’

I will betroth you to me forever. Yes, I will betroth you to me in righteousness, in justice, in loving kindness, and in compassion.

I will even betroth you to me in faithfulness; and you shall know Yahweh.

Yahweh said to me, “Go again, love a woman loved by another, and an adulteress, even as Yahweh loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods, and love cakes of raisins.”

So I bought her for myself for fifteen pieces of silver and a homer and a half of barley.

I said to her, “You shall stay with me many days. You shall not play the prostitute, and you shall not be with any other man. I will also be so toward you.”

Jacob fled into the country of Aram, and Israel served to get a wife, and for a wife he tended flocks and herds.

Mourn like a virgin dressed in sackcloth for the husband of her youth!

Gather the people. Sanctify the assembly. Assemble the elders. Gather the children, and those who nurse from breasts. Let the bridegroom go out of his room, and the bride out of her room.

Judah has dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah has profaned the holiness of Yahweh which he loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god.

Yet you say, ‘Why?’ Because Yahweh has been witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have dealt treacherously, though she is your companion, and the wife of your covenant.

Did he not make you one, although he had the residue of the Spirit? Why one? He sought godly offspring. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let no one deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.

For I hate divorce”, says Yahweh, the God of Israel, “and him who covers his garment with violence!” says Yahweh of Armies. “Therefore take heed to your spirit, that you don’t deal treacherously.

When I became a man, I took as wife Anna of the seed of our own family. With her, I became the father of Tobias.

because that she had been given to seven husbands, and Asmodaeus the evil spirit killed them, before they had lain with her. And they said to her, “Do you not know that you strangle your husbands? You have had already seven husbands, and you haven’t borne the name of any one of them.

Raphael also was sent to heal them both, to scale away the white films from Tobit’s eyes, and to give Sarah the daughter of Raguel for a wife to Tobias the son of Tobit; and to bind Asmodaeus the evil spirit; because it belonged to Tobias that he should inherit her. At that very time, Tobit returned and entered into his house, and Sarah the daughter of Raguel came down from her upper chamber.

Beware, my child, of all whoredom, and take first a wife of the seed of your fathers. Don’t take a strange wife, who is not of your father’s tribe; for we are the descendants of the prophets. Remember, my child, that Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, our fathers of old time, all took wives of their kindred, and were blessed in their children, and their seed will inherit the land.

And now, my child, love your kindred, and don’t scorn your kindred and the sons and the daughters of your people in your heart, to take a wife of them; for in scornfulness is destruction and much trouble, and in naughtiness is decay and great lack; for naughtiness is the mother of famine.

the angel said to the young man, “Brother, today we will lodge with Raguel. He is your kinsman. He has an only daughter named Sarah. I will speak about her, that she should be given to you for a wife.

For her inheritance belongs to you, and you only are of her kindred.

The maid is fair and wise. And now hear me, and I will speak to her father. When we return from Rages we will celebrate the marriage; for I know that Raguel may in no way marry her to another according to the law of Moses, or else he would be liable to death, because it belongs to you to take the inheritance, rather than any other.”

Then the young man said to the angel, “Brother Azarias, I have heard that this maid has been given to seven men, and that they all perished in the bride-chamber.

But the angel said to him, “Don’t you remember the words which your father commanded you, that you should take a wife of your own kindred? Now hear me, brother; for she will be your wife. Don’t worry about the demon; for this night she will be given you as wife.

And when you come into the bride-chamber, you shall take the ashes of incense, and shall lay upon them some of the heart and liver of the fish, and shall make smoke with them.

The demon will smell it, and flee away, and never come again any more. But when you go near to her, both of you rise up, and cry to God who is merciful. He will save you, and have mercy on you. Don’t be afraid, for she was prepared for you from the beginning; and you will save her, and she will go with you. And I suppose that you will have children with her.” When Tobias heard these things, he loved her, and his soul was strongly joined to her.

So he communicated the thing to Raguel. Raguel said to Tobias, “Eat, drink, and make merry:

for it belongs to you to take my child. However I will tell you the truth.

I have given my child to seven men, and whenever they came in to her, they died in the night. But for the present be merry.” And Tobias said, “I will taste nothing here, until you all make a covenant and enter into that covenant with me.”

Raguel said, “Take her to yourself from now on according to custom. You are her relative, and she is yours. The merciful God will give all good success to you.”

And he called his daughter Sarah, and took her by the hand, and gave her to be wife of Tobias, and said, “Behold, take her to yourself after the law of Moses, and lead her away to your father.” And he blessed them.

He called Edna his wife, then took a book, wrote a contract, and sealed it.

And Raguel called his wife Edna, and said to her, “Sister, prepare the other chamber, and bring her in there.”

When they had finished their supper, they brought Tobias in to her.

But after they were both shut in together, Tobias rose up from the bed, and said, “Sister, arise, and let us pray that the Lord may have mercy on us.”

You made Adam, and gave him Eve his wife for a helper and support. From them came the seed of men. You said, it is not good that the man should be alone. Let us make him a helper like him.

And now, O Lord, I take not this my sister for lust, but in truth. Command that I may find mercy and grow old with her.”

She said with him, “Amen.” And they both slept that night.

saying, “Lest he also should die.”

and said to Edna his wife, “Send one of the maidservants, and let them see if he is alive. If not, we will bury him, and no man will know it.”

Blessed are you, because you have made me glad; and it has not happened me as I suspected; but you have dealt with us according to your great mercy.

He kept the wedding feast for them fourteen days.

Before the days of the wedding feast were finished, Raguel sware to him, that he should not depart till the fourteen days of the wedding feast were fulfilled;

Then they rose up early in the morning together, and came to the wedding feast. Tobias blessed his wife.

And she said to him, “Hold your peace. Don’t deceive me. My child has perished.” And she went out every day into the way by which they went, and ate no bread in the day-time, and didn’t stop bewailing her son Tobias for whole nights, until the fourteen days of the wedding feast were expired, which Raguel had sworn that he should spend there. Then Tobias said to Raguel, “Send me away, for my father and my mother look no more to see me.”

Raguel arose, and gave him Sarah his wife, and half his goods, servants and cattle and money;

And he said to his daughter, “Honor your father-in-law and your mother-in-law. They are now your parents. Let me hear a good report of you. Then he kissed her. Edna said to Tobias, “May the Lord of heaven restore you, dear brother, and grant to me that I may see your children of my daughter Sarah, that I may rejoice before the Lord. Behold, I commit my daughter to you in special trust. Don’t cause her grief.

Tobias’ wedding feast was kept seven days with great gladness.

When Anna died, he buried her with his father. But Tobias departed with his wife and his sons to Ecbatana to Raguel his father-in-law,

Her husband was Manasses, of her tribe and of her family. He died in the days of barley harvest.

She increased in greatness exceedingly; and she grew old in her husband’s house, to one hundred five years, and let her maid go free. Then she died in Bethulia. They buried her in the cave of her husband Manasses.

when the days of the marriage feast were completed, the king made a banquet for the people of the nations who were present in the city for six days, in the court of the king’s house,

so this day the other wives of the chiefs of the Persians and Medes, having heard what she said to the king, will dare in the same way to dishonor their husbands.

Let the law of the king which he will have made be widely proclaimed in his kingdom. Then all the women will give honor to their husbands, from the poor even to the rich.”

and sent into all his kingdom through the several provinces, according to their language, so that men might be feared in their own houses.

And then the lady goes in to the king. The officer that he commands to do so will bring her to come in with him from the women’s apartment to the king’s chamber.

The king made a banquet for all his friends and great men for seven days, and he highly celebrated the marriage of Esther; and he granted a remission of taxes to those who were under his dominion.

Her I loved and sought out from my youth, And I sought to take her for my bride, And I became enamoured of her beauty.

When he makes his prayer concerning goods and his marriage and children, He is not ashamed to speak to that which has no life;

No longer do they guard either life or purity of marriage, But one brings upon another either death by treachery, or anguish by adulterate offspring.

turmoil, Ingratitude for benefits received, Defiling of souls, confusion of sex, Disorder in marriage, adultery and wantonness.

Forgo not a wise and good wife; For her grace is above gold.

Give your daughter in marriage, and you will have accomplished a great matter: And give her to a man of understanding.

Hast you a wife after your mind? cast her not out: But trust not yourself to one that is hateful.

Be not jealous over the wife of your bosom, And teach her not an evil lesson against yourself.

And as a mother shall she meet him, And receive him as a wife married in her virginity.