Days before the flood

• Mt 24:38 – For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark
• Lk 17:27 – They were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.

This age

• Lk 20:34 – And Jesus said to them, “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage

After resurrection

• Mt 22:30 – For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.
• Mk 12:25 – For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.
• Lk 20:35 – but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage

• Gen 2:18 – Then the LORD God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”
• Prov 2:16 – So you will be delivered from the forbidden woman, from the adulteress with her smooth words,
• Prov 2:17 – who forsakes the companion of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God;
• Mal 2:14 – But you say, “Why does he not?” Because the LORD was witness between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant.
• See also Eccl 4:9-11

• Prov 5:18 – Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth
• Eccl 9:9 – Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of your vain life that he has given you under the sun, because that is your portion in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun.

• Mal 2:15 – Did he not make them one, with a portion of the Spirit in their union? And what was the one God seeking? Godly offspring. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and let none of you be faithless to the wife of your youth.

• 1 Pet 3:7 – Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.

Of actions relating to marriage

• God
  • Brought woman to man
    • Gen 2:22 – And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.
  • Joined together
    • Mt 19:6 – So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”
    • Mk 10:9 – What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”
  • Make them one
    • Mal 2:15 – Did he not make them one, with a portion of the Spirit in their union? And what was the one God seeking? Godly offspring. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and let none of you be faithless to the wife of your youth. [footnote text=“It is not clear in Hebrew what "make them one" means.”]
• Man/husband
  • Leave his father and mother (Gen 2:24; Mt 19:5; Mk 10:7; Eph 5:31)
  • Hold fast to his wife (Gen 2:24; Mt 19:5; Mk 10:7; Eph 5:31)

• Gen 2:24 – Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
• Mal 2:15 – Did he not make them one, with a portion of the Spirit in their union? And what was the one God seeking? Godly offspring. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and let none of you be faithless to the wife of your youth. [footnote text=“It is not clear in Hebrew what "make them one" means.”]
• Mt 19:5 – and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh’?
• Mt 19:6 – So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”
• Mk 10:8 – and they shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh.
• 1 Cor 6:16 – Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.”
• Eph 5:31 – “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”

• Lk 20:34 – And Jesus said to them, “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage
• 1 Cor 7:28 – But if you do marry, you have not sinned, and if a betrothed woman marries, she has not sinned. Yet those who marry will have worldly troubles, and I would spare you that.
• 1 Cor 7:36 – If anyone thinks that he is not behaving properly toward his betrothed, if his passions are strong, and it has to be, let him do as he wishes: let them marry–it is no sin.
• 1 Cor 9:5 – Do we not have the right to take along a believing wife, as do the other apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas?
• 1 Tim 4:3 – who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.

• Gen 2:22 – And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.
• Gen 2:24 – Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
• Isa 62:5 – For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your sons marry you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.
• 1 Cor 7:2 – But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband.

• Jer 31:32 – not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD.
• Ezek 16:8 – “When I passed by you again and saw you, behold, you were at the age for love, and I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your nakedness; I made my vow to you and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Lord GOD, and you became mine.
• Mal 2:14 – But you say, “Why does he not?” Because the LORD was witness between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant.

• Prov 18:22 – He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the LORD.

• Ruth 3:1 – Then Naomi her mother-in-law said to her, “My daughter, should I not seek rest for you, that it may be well with you?

• Gen 24:67 – Then Isaac brought her into the tent of Sarah his mother and took Rebekah, and she became his wife, and he loved her. So Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death.
• Gen 29:18 – Jacob loved Rachel. And he said, “I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel.”
• Gen 29:20 – So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed to him but a few days because of the love he had for her.
• Gen 29:30 – So Jacob went in to Rachel also, and he loved Rachel more than Leah, and served Laban for another seven years.
• 1 Sam 1:4 – On the day when Elkanah sacrificed, he would give portions to Peninnah his wife and to all her sons and daughters.
• 1 Sam 1:5 – But to Hannah he gave a double portion, because he loved her, though the LORD had closed her womb.
• 1 Sam 18:20 – Now Saul’s daughter Michal loved David. And they told Saul, and the thing pleased him.
• 1 Sam 18:28 – But when Saul saw and knew that the LORD was with David, and that Michal, Saul’s daughter, loved him,
• 1 Kgs 11:2 – from the nations concerning which the LORD had said to the people of Israel, “You shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you, for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods.” Solomon clung to these in love.
• 2 Chr 11:21 – Rehoboam loved Maacah the daughter of Absalom above all his wives and concubines (he took eighteen wives and sixty concubines, and fathered twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters).
• Prov 5:18 – Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth,
• Prov 5:19 – a lovely deer, a graceful doe. Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight; be intoxicated always in her love.
• Eccl 9:9 – Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of your vain life that he has given you under the sun, because that is your portion in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun.
• Song of Songs 1-8
• Song 4:10 – How beautiful is your love, my sister, my bride! How much better is your love than wine, and the fragrance of your oils than any spice!
• Jer 2:2 – “Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem, Thus says the LORD, “I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed me in the wilderness, in a land not sown.
• Ezek 16:8 – “When I passed by you again and saw you, behold, you were at the age for love, and I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your nakedness; I made my vow to you and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Lord GOD, and you became mine.

• Gen 29:31 – When the LORD saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren.
• Deut 21:15 – “If a man has two wives, the one loved and the other unloved, and both the loved and the unloved have borne him children, and if the firstborn son belongs to the unloved,
• Deut 21:16 – then on the day when he assigns his possessions as an inheritance to his sons, he may not treat the son of the loved as the firstborn in preference to the son of the unloved, who is the firstborn,

• Job 31:1 – “I have made a covenant with my eyes; how then could I gaze at a virgin?
• Hos 2:20 – I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the LORD.
• Hos 3:3 – And I said to her, “You must dwell as mine for many days. You shall not play the whore, or belong to another man; so will I also be to you.”

• Ex 21:8 – If she does not please her master, who has designated her for himself, then he shall let her be redeemed. He shall have no right to sell her to a foreign people, since he has broken faith with her.
• Num 5:12 – “Speak to the people of Israel, If any man’s wife goes astray and breaks faith with him,
• Num 5:13 – if a man lies with her sexually, and it is hidden from the eyes of her husband, and she is undetected though she has defiled herself, and there is no witness against her, since she was not taken in the act,
• Judg 19:2 – And his concubine was unfaithful to him, and she went away from him to her father’s house at Bethlehem in Judah, and was there some four months.
• Jer 3:8 – She saw that for all the adulteries of that faithless one, Israel, I had sent her away with a decree of divorce. Yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but she too went and played the whore.
• Jer 3:20 – Surely, as a treacherous wife leaves her husband, so have you been treacherous to me, O house of Israel, declares the LORD.'”
• Hos 5:7 – They have dealt faithlessly with the LORD; for they have borne alien children. Now the new moon shall devour them with their fields.
• Mal 2:11 – Judah has been faithless, and abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem. For Judah has profaned the sanctuary of the LORD, which he loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god.
• Mal 2:14 – But you say, “Why does he not?” Because the LORD was witness between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant.
• Mal 2:15 – Did he not make them one, with a portion of the Spirit in their union? And what was the one God seeking? Godly offspring. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and let none of you be faithless to the wife of your youth
• Mal 2:16 – “For the man who hates and divorces, says the LORD, the God of Israel, covers his garment with violence, says the LORD of hosts. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and do not be faithless.”

• Deut 24:5 – “When a man is newly married, he shall not go out with the army or be liable for any other public duty. He shall be free at home one year to be happy with his wife whom he has taken.
• Ps 19:5 – which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber, and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy.
• Prov 5:18 – Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth
• Eccl 9:9 – Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of your vain life that he has given you under the sun, because that is your portion in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun.
• Isa 62:4 – You shall no more be termed Forsaken, and your land shall no more be termed Desolate, but you shall be called My Delight Is in Her, and your land Married; for the LORD delights in you, and your land shall be married.
• Isa 62:5 – For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your sons marry you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.
• Jer 7:34 – And I will silence in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, for the land shall become a waste.
• Jer 16:9 – For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will silence in this place, before your eyes and in your days, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride.
• Jer 25:10 – Moreover, I will banish from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the grinding of the millstones and the light of the lamp.
• Jer 33:11 – the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voices of those who sing, as they bring thank offerings to the house of the LORD: “‘Give thanks to the LORD of hosts, for the LORD is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!’ For I will restore the fortunes of the land as at first, says the LORD.
• Jn 3:29 – The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete.
• Rev 18:23 – and the light of a lamp will shine in you no more, and the voice of bridegroom and bride will be heard in you no more, for your merchants were the great ones of the earth, and all nations were deceived by your sorcery.

• Prov 30:21 – Under three things the earth trembles; under four it cannot bear up:
• Prov 30:23 – an unloved woman when she gets a husband, and a maidservant when she displaces her mistress.

Instituted by God

• Gen 2:22 – And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.
• Gen 2:24 – Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
• Mt 19:4 – He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female,
• Mt 19:5 – and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh’?
• Mt 19:6 – So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”
• Mk 10:6 – But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’
• Mk 10:7 – ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife,
• Mk 10:8 – and they shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh.
• Mk 10:9 – What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”

God’s involvement

• In punishing marital fidelity

  • Gen 12:17 – But the LORD afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife.
  • Gen 12:18 – So Pharaoh called Abram and said, “What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife?
  • Gen 12:19 – Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her for my wife? Now then, here is your wife; take her, and go.”
  • Gen 12:20 – And Pharaoh gave men orders concerning him, and they sent him away with his wife and all that he had.
  • Gen 20:3 – But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him, “Behold, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is a man’s wife.”
  • Gen 20:6 – Then God said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know that you have done this in the integrity of your heart, and it was I who kept you from sinning against me. Therefore I did not let you touch her.
  • Gen 20:7 – Now then, return the man’s wife, for he is a prophet, so that he will pray for you, and you shall live. But if you do not return her, know that you shall surely die, you, and all who are yours.”
  • 2 Sam 11:27 – And when the mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased the LORD.
  • 2 Sam 12:9 – Why have you despised the word of the LORD, to do what is evil in his sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and have taken his wife to be your wife and have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites.
  • 2 Sam 12:10 – Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.’
  • Ezek 22:1 – And the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
  • Ezek 22:2 – “And you, son of man, will you judge, will you judge the bloody city? Then declare to her all her abominations.
  • Ezek 22:11 – One commits abomination with his neighbor’s wife; another lewdly defiles his daughter-in-law; another in you violates his sister, his father’s daughter.
  • Ezek 22:15 – I will scatter you among the nations and disperse you through the countries, and I will consume your uncleanness out of you.
  • Heb 13:4 – Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.

• In choice of spouse

  • Gen 24:14 – Let the young woman to whom I shall say, ‘Please let down your jar that I may drink,’ and who shall say, ‘Drink, and I will water your camels’–let her be the one whom you have appointed for your servant Isaac. By this I shall know that you have shown steadfast love to my master.”
  • Gen 24:40 – But he said to me, ‘The LORD, before whom I have walked, will send his angel with you and prosper your way. You shall take a wife for my son from my clan and from my father’s house.
  • Gen 24:44 – and who will say to me, “Drink, and I will draw for your camels also,” let her be the woman whom the LORD has appointed for my master’s son.’
  • Gen 24:50 – Then Laban and Bethuel answered and said, “The thing has come from the LORD; we cannot speak to you bad or good.
  • Gen 24:51 – Behold, Rebekah is before you; take her and go, and let her be the wife of your master’s son, as the LORD has spoken.”
  • Mt 1:19 – And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.
  • Mt 1:20 – But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.
  • Mt 1:24 – When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife

• Within marriage

  • Gen 29:31 – When the LORD saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren.
  • Gen 29:32 – And Leah conceived and bore a son, and she called his name Reuben, for she said, “Because the LORD has looked upon my affliction; for now my husband will love me.”
  • Gen 38:10 – And what he did was wicked in the sight of the LORD, and he put him to death also.

Prohibitions

• Not to intermarry with Gentile nations (see also <topic id=”710” startswith=”As a result of marrying outside of faith” nth=”1”>As a result of marrying outside of faith</topic>)
  • Deut 7:1 – “When the LORD your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, and clears away many nations before you, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and mightier than yourselves,
  • Deut 7:2 – and when the LORD your God gives them over to you, and you defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction. You shall make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them.
  • Deut 7:3 – You shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons,
  • Deut 7:4 – for they would turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods. Then the anger of the LORD would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly.
  • 1 Kgs 11:2 – from the nations concerning which the LORD had said to the people of Israel, “You shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you, for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods.” Solomon clung to these in love.
  • Ezra 9:1 – After these things had been done, the officials approached me and said, “The people of Israel and the priests and the Levites have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands with their abominations, from the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites.
  • Ezra 9:2 – For they have taken some of their daughters to be wives for themselves and for their sons, so that the holy race has mixed itself with the peoples of the lands. And in this faithlessness the hand of the officials and chief men has been foremost.”
  • Ezra 9:10 – “And now, O our God, what shall we say after this? For we have forsaken your commandments,
  • Ezra 9:11 – which you commanded by your servants the prophets, saying, ‘The land that you are entering, to take possession of it, is a land impure with the impurity of the peoples of the lands, with their abominations that have filled it from end to end with their uncleanness.
  • Ezra 9:12 – Therefore do not give your daughters to their sons, neither take their daughters for your sons, and never seek their peace or prosperity, that you may be strong and eat the good of the land and leave it for an inheritance to your children forever.’
  • Ezra 9:14 – shall we break your commandments again and intermarry with the peoples who practice these abominations? Would you not be angry with us until you consumed us, so that there should be no remnant, nor any to escape?

Consequences of disobeying God’s commands

• As a result of marrying outside of faith
  • Heart turned away from God
    • Deut 7:1 – “When the LORD your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, and clears away many nations before you, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and mightier than yourselves,
    • Deut 7:3 – You shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons,
    • Deut 7:4 – for they would turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods. Then the anger of the LORD would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly.
    • Judg 3:6 – And their daughters they took to themselves for wives, and their own daughters they gave to their sons, and they served their gods.
      Judg 3:7 – And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD. They forgot the LORD their God and served the Baals and the Asheroth.
    • 1 Kgs 11:2 – from the nations concerning which the LORD had said to the people of Israel, “You shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you, for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods.” Solomon clung to these in love.
    • 1 Kgs 11:3 – He had 700 wives, princesses, and 300 concubines. And his wives turned away his heart.
    • 1 Kgs 11:4 – For when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father.
    • 1 Kgs 11:5 – For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.
    • 1 Kgs 11:6 – So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and did not wholly follow the LORD, as David his father had done.
    • 1 Kgs 11:7 – Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Molech the abomination of the Ammonites, on the mountain east of Jerusalem.
    • 1 Kgs 11:8 – And so he did for all his foreign wives, who made offerings and sacrificed to their gods.
    • 1 Kgs 11:9 – And the LORD was angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned away from the LORD, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice
  • Break faith with God
    • Ezra 9:1 – After these things had been done, the officials approached me and said, “The people of Israel and the priests and the Levites have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands with their abominations, from the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites.
    • Ezra 9:2 – For they have taken some of their daughters to be wives for themselves and for their sons, so that the holy race has mixed itself with the peoples of the lands. And in this faithlessness the hand of the officials and chief men has been foremost.”
    • Ezra 9:4 – Then all who trembled at the words of the God of Israel, because of the faithlessness of the returned exiles, gathered around me while I sat appalled until the evening sacrifice.
    • Ezra 10:2 – And Shecaniah the son of Jehiel, of the sons of Elam, addressed Ezra: “We have broken faith with our God and have married foreign women from the peoples of the land, but even now there is hope for Israel in spite of this.
    • Ezra 10:10 – And Ezra the priest stood up and said to them, “You have broken faith and married foreign women, and so increased the guilt of Israel.
  • Become unequally yoked
    • 2 Cor 6:14 – Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?
    • 2 Cor 6:15 – What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever?
    • 2 Cor 6:16 – What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
  • Fall in a snare and trap
    • Josh 23:12 – For if you turn back and cling to the remnant of these nations remaining among you and make marriages with them, so that you associate with them and they with you,
    • Josh 23:13 – know for certain that the LORD your God will no longer drive out these nations before you, but they shall be a snare and a trap for you, a whip on your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from off this good ground that the LORD your God has given you.
  • Anger God
    • Ezra 9:14 – shall we break your commandments again and intermarry with the peoples who practice these abominations? Would you not be angry with us until you consumed us, so that there should be no remnant, nor any to escape?
    • Ezra 10:14 – Let our officials stand for the whole assembly. Let all in our cities who have taken foreign wives come at appointed times, and with them the elders and judges of every city, until the fierce wrath of our God over this matter is turned away from us.”
  • Do great evil and act treacherously against God
    • Ezra 9:13 – And after all that has come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great guilt, seeing that you, our God, have punished us less than our iniquities deserved and have given us such a remnant as this,
    • Neh 13:27 – Shall we then listen to you and do all this great evil and act treacherously against our God by marrying foreign women?”
  • Commit abomination
    • Mal 2:11 – Judah has been faithless, and abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem. For Judah has profaned the sanctuary of the LORD, which he loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god.
• As a result of committing adultery
  • Prov 5:20 – Why should you be intoxicated, my son, with a forbidden woman and embrace the bosom of an adulteress?
  • Prov 5:21 – For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the LORD, and he ponders all his paths.
  • Mal 2:13 – And this second thing you do. You cover the LORD’s altar with tears, with weeping and groaning because he no longer regards the offering or accepts it with favor from your hand.
  • Mal 2:14 – But you say, “Why does he not?” Because the LORD was witness between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant.
  • Mal 2:15 – Did he not make them one, with a portion of the Spirit in their union? And what was the one God seeking? Godly offspring. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and let none of you be faithless to the wife of your youth.
  • Mal 2:16 – “For the man who hates and divorces, says the LORD, the God of Israel, covers his garment with violence, says the LORD of hosts. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and do not be faithless.”

Parables and analogies

• God is the husband of Israel
  • Isa 54:5 – For your Maker is your husband, the LORD of hosts is his name; and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer, the God of the whole earth he is called.
  • Jer 2:2 – “Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem, Thus says the LORD, “I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed me in the wilderness, in a land not sown.
  • Jer 3:1 – “If a man divorces his wife and she goes from him and becomes another man’s wife, will he return to her? Would not that land be greatly polluted? You have played the whore with many lovers; and would you return to me? declares the LORD.
  • Jer 3:14 – “Return, O backsliding children,” says the LORD; “for I am married to you. I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion. (NKJV)
  • Jer 3:20 – Surely, as a treacherous wife leaves her husband, so have you been treacherous to me, O house of Israel, declares the LORD.'”
  • Jer 31:32 – not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD.
  • Ezek 16:8 – “When I passed by you again and saw you, behold, you were at the age for love, and I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your nakedness; I made my vow to you and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Lord GOD, and you became mine.
  • Ezek 23:4 – Oholah was the name of the elder and Oholibah the name of her sister. They became mine, and they bore sons and daughters. As for their names, Oholah is Samaria, and Oholibah is Jerusalem.
  • Hos 2:7 – She shall pursue her lovers but not overtake them, and she shall seek them but shall not find them. Then she shall say, ‘I will go and return to my first husband, for it was better for me then than now.’
  • Hos 2:16 – “And in that day, declares the LORD, you will call me ‘My Husband,’ and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal.’
  • Hos 2:19 – And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy.
  • Hos 2:20 – I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the LORD.
  • Rev 21:2 – And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
• Bride and bridegroom
  • Isa 61:10 – I will greatly rejoice in the LORD; my soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
  • Isa 62:5 – For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your sons marry you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.
  • Jer 7:34 – And I will silence in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, for the land shall become a waste.
  • Jer 16:9 – For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will silence in this place, before your eyes and in your days, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride.
  • Jer 25:10 – Moreover, I will banish from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the grinding of the millstones and the light of the lamp.
  • Jer 33:11 – the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voices of those who sing, as they bring thank offerings to the house of the LORD: “‘Give thanks to the LORD of hosts, for the LORD is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!’For I will restore the fortunes of the land as at first, says the LORD.
• Bride
  • Isa 49:18 – Lift up your eyes around and see; they all gather, they come to you. As I live, declares the LORD, you shall put them all on as an ornament; you shall bind them on as a bride does.
  • Jer 2:2 – “Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem, Thus says the LORD, “I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed me in the wilderness, in a land not sown.
  • Jer 2:32 – Can a virgin forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? Yet my people have forgotten me days without number.
• Bridegroom
  • Ps 19:5 – which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber, and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy.
  • Joel 1:8 – Lament like a virgin wearing sackcloth for the bridegroom of her youth.

• Mt 19:4 – He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female,
• Mt 19:5 – and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh’?
• Mt 19:6 – So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”
• Mt 19:8 – He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.
• Mt 19:9 – And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.”
• Mk 10:6 – But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’
• Mk 10:7 – ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife,
• Mk 10:8 – and they shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh.
• Mk 10:9 – What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”
• Mk 10:11 – And he said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her,
• Mk 10:12 – and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”
• Lk 14:18 – But they all alike began to make excuses.
• Lk 14:20 – And another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’
• Lk 14:26 – “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.
• Lk 18:29 – And he said to them, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God,
• Lk 18:30 – who will not receive many times more in this time, and in the age to come eternal life.”

• Jesus as the bridegroom
  • Mt 9:15 – And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.
  • Mt 25:1 – “Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom.
  • Mt 25:5 – As the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept.
  • Mt 25:6 – But at midnight there was a cry, ‘Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’
  • Mt 25:10 – And while they were going to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was shut.
  • Mk 2:19 – And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast.
  • Mk 2:20 – The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day.
  • Lk 5:34 – And Jesus said to them, “Can you make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them?
  • Lk 5:35 – The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days.”
• The church as the bride of Christ
  • 2 Cor 11:2 – I feel a divine jealousy for you, for I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ.
  • Eph 5:23 – For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior.
  • Eph 5:24 – Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.
  • Rev 21:9 – Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues and spoke to me, saying, “Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.”
• Christ and church as model for marriage
  • Eph 5:24 – Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.
  • Eph 5:25 – Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,
  • Eph 5:28 – In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.
  • Eph 5:29 – For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church
• Marriage supper of the Lamb (Rev 19:7-9)

• Parable of the wedding feast (Mt 22:1-14)
• Parable of the ten virgins (Mt 25:1-13)
• Parable of servant waiting for master’s return (Lk 12:35-40)
• Parable of guest at wedding feast (Lk 14:7-11)

For husband and wife

• Marry within the faith
  • Lev 21:14 – A widow, or a divorced woman, or a woman who has been defiled, or a prostitute, these he shall not marry. But he shall take as his wife a virgin of his own people
  • Deut 7:3 – You shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons,
  • Deut 7:4 – for they would turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods. Then the anger of the LORD would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly.
  • Judg 14:3 – But his father and mother said to him, “Is there not a woman among the daughters of your relatives, or among all our people, that you must go to take a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?” But Samson said to his father, “Get her for me, for she is right in my eyes.”
  • 1 Kgs 11:1 – Now King Solomon loved many foreign women, along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women,
  • 1 Kgs 11:2 – from the nations concerning which the LORD had said to the people of Israel, “You shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you, for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods.” Solomon clung to these in love.
  • Ezra 9:1 – After these things had been done, the officials approached me and said, “The people of Israel and the priests and the Levites have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands with their abominations, from the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites.
  • Ezra 9:2 – For they have taken some of their daughters to be wives for themselves and for their sons, so that the holy race has mixed itself with the peoples of the lands. And in this faithlessness the hand of the officials and chief men has been foremost.”
  • Ezra 9:10 – “And now, O our God, what shall we say after this? For we have forsaken your commandments,
  • Ezra 9:11 – which you commanded by your servants the prophets, saying, ‘The land that you are entering, to take possession of it, is a land impure with the impurity of the peoples of the lands, with their abominations that have filled it from end to end with their uncleanness.
  • Ezra 9:12 – Therefore do not give your daughters to their sons, neither take their daughters for your sons, and never seek their peace or prosperity, that you may be strong and eat the good of the land and leave it for an inheritance to your children forever.’
  • Ezra 9:13 – And after all that has come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great guilt, seeing that you, our God, have punished us less than our iniquities deserved and have given us such a remnant as this,
  • Ezra 9:14 – shall we break your commandments again and intermarry with the peoples who practice these abominations? Would you not be angry with us until you consumed us, so that there should be no remnant, nor any to escape?
  • 1 Cor 7:39 – A wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband dies, she is free to be married to whom she wishes, only in the Lord.
  • 1 Cor 9:5 – Do we not have the right to take along a believing wife, as do the other apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas?
  • 2 Cor 6:14 – Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?
  • 2 Cor 6:15 – What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever?
  • 2 Cor 6:16 – What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
• One spouse
  • Have one wife
    • 1 Cor 7:2 – But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband.
    • 1 Tim 3:2 – Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach
    • 1 Tim 3:12 – Let deacons each be the husband of one wife, managing their children and their own households well.
    • Tit 1:6 – if anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife, and his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination.
  • Have one husband
    • Hos 3:3 – And I said to her, “You must dwell as mine for many days. You shall not play the whore, or belong to another man; so will I also be to you.”
    • 1 Cor 7:2 – But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband.
    • 1 Tim 5:9 – Let a widow be enrolled if she is not less than sixty years of age, having been the wife of one husband
    • 2 Cor 11:2 – I feel a divine jealousy for you, for I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ.
• Wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives
  • Rom 7:2 – Thus a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage.
  • Rom 7:3 – Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress.
  • 1 Cor 7:10 – To the married I give this charge (not I, but the Lord): the wife should not separate from her husband
  • 1 Cor 7:11 – (but if she does, she should remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband), and the husband should not divorce his wife.
  • 1 Cor 7:39 – A wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband dies, she is free to be married to whom she wishes, only in the Lord.
• Should not deprive one another
  • Ex 21:10 – If he takes another wife to himself, he shall not diminish her food, her clothing, or her marital rights.
  • 1 Cor 7:3 – The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband.
  • 1 Cor 7:5 – Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer; but then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.
• Husband has authority over the body of wife
  • Num 5:20 – But if you have gone astray, though you are under your husband’s authority, and if you have defiled yourself, and some man other than your husband has lain with you,
  • Num 5:29 – “This is the law in cases of jealousy, when a wife, though under her husband’s authority, goes astray and defiles herself,
  • 1 Cor 7:4 – For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does.
• The head of the wife is her husband
  • 1 Cor 11:3 – But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God.
  • Eph 5:23 – For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior.
• Wife has authority over the body of husband
  • 1 Cor 7:4 – For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does.

For the wife

• A virgin at time of marriage
  • Gen 24:16 – The young woman was very attractive in appearance, a maiden whom no man had known. She went down to the spring and filled her jar and came up.
  • Gen 24:43 – behold, I am standing by the spring of water. Let the virgin who comes out to draw water, to whom I shall say, “Please give me a little water from your jar to drink,”
  • Lev 21:7 – They shall not marry a prostitute or a woman who has been defiled, neither shall they marry a woman divorced from her husband, for the priest is holy to his God.
  • Lev 21:13 – And he shall take a wife in her virginity.
  • Lev 21:14 – A widow, or a divorced woman, or a woman who has been defiled, or a prostitute, these he shall not marry. But he shall take as his wife a virgin of his own people
  • Deut 22:15 – then the father of the young woman and her mother shall take and bring out the evidence of her virginity to the elders of the city in the gate.
  • Deut 22:16 – And the father of the young woman shall say to the elders, ‘I gave my daughter to this man to marry, and he hates her;
  • Deut 22:17 – and behold, he has accused her of misconduct, saying, “I did not find in your daughter evidence of virginity.” And yet this is the evidence of my daughter’s virginity.’ And they shall spread the cloak before the elders of the city.
  • Deut 22:18 – Then the elders of that city shall take the man and whip him,
  • Deut 22:19 – and they shall fine him a hundred shekels of silver and give them to the father of the young woman, because he has brought a bad name upon a virgin of Israel. And she shall be his wife. He may not divorce her all his days.
  • Deut 22:20 – But if the thing is true, that evidence of virginity was not found in the young woman,
  • Deut 22:21 – then they shall bring out the young woman to the door of her father’s house, and the men of her city shall stone her to death with stones, because she has done an outrageous thing in Israel by whoring in her father’s house. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.
  • Judg 21:12 – And they found among the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead 400 young virgins who had not known a man by lying with him, and they brought them to the camp at Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan.
  • Isa 62:5 – For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your sons marry you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you. [footnote text=“&quot;A young woman&quot; is a translation of the Hebrew word that means a virgin.”]
  • Ezek 44:22 – They shall not marry a widow or a divorced woman, but only virgins of the offspring of the house of Israel, or a widow who is the widow of a priest.
  • Lk 2:36 – And there was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years, having lived with her husband seven years from when she was a virgin
  • 1 Cor 7:28 – But if you do marry, you have not sinned, and if a betrothed woman marries, she has not sinned. Yet those who marry will have worldly troubles, and I would spare you that. [footnote text=“&quot;A betrothed woman&quot; is a translation of the Greek word that means a virgin.”]
  • 1 Cor 7:34 – and his interests are divided. And the unmarried or betrothed woman is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to be holy in body and spirit. But the married woman is anxious about worldly things, how to please her husband. [footnote text=“&quot;A betrothed woman&quot; is a translation of the Greek word that means a virgin.”]
  • 2 Cor 11:2 – I feel a divine jealousy for you, for I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ.
• Submit to her husband
  • Eph 5:22 – Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.
  • Eph 5:23 – For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior.
  • Eph 5:24 – Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.
  • 1 Cor 11:3 – But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God.
  • Col 3:18 – Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.
  • Tit 2:5 – to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.
  • 1 Pet 3:1 – Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives–
  • 1 Pet 3:5 – For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves, by submitting to their husbands
• Respect her husband
  • Eph 5:33 – However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.
  • 1 Pet 3:1, 2 – Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives, when they see your respectful and pure conduct.
• Give her husband his conjugal rights
  • 1 Cor 7:3 – The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband.
• Not separate from her husband
  • 1 Cor 7:10 – To the married I give this charge (not I, but the Lord): the wife should not separate from her husband
• Love her husband and children
  • Tit 2:4 – and so train the young women to love their husbands and children

For husband

• Not divorce his wife
  • Deut 22:13 – “If any man takes a wife and goes in to her and then hates her
  • Deut 22:16 – And the father of the young woman shall say to the elders, ‘I gave my daughter to this man to marry, and he hates her;
  • Deut 22:19 – and they shall fine him a hundred shekels of silver and give them to the father of the young woman, because he has brought a bad name upon a virgin of Israel. And she shall be his wife. He may not divorce her all his days.
  • Mal 2:16 – “For the man who hates and divorces, says the LORD, the God of Israel, covers his garment with violence, says the LORD of hosts. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and do not be faithless.”
  • Mt 5:32 – But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery. And whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
  • 1 Cor 7:11 – (but if she does, she should remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband), and the husband should not divorce his wife.
• Love his wife as himself
  • Eph 5:25 – Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her
  • Eph 5:28 – In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.
  • Eph 5:33 – However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.
  • Col 3:19 – Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them.
• Guard himself in the spirit
  • Mal 2:15 – Did he not make them one, with a portion of the Spirit in their union? And what was the one God seeking? Godly offspring. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and let none of you be faithless to the wife of your youth.
  • Mal 2:16 – “For the man who hates and divorces, says the LORD, the God of Israel, covers his garment with violence, says the LORD of hosts. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and do not be faithless.”
• Be understanding toward his wife
  • Col 3:19 – Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them.
  • 1 Pet 3:7 – Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.
• Give his wife her conjugal rights
  • 1 Cor 7:3 – The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband.

For all

• Man must not separate
  • Mt 19:6 – So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”
  • Mk 10:9 – What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”
• Marriage to be held in honor among all
  • Heb 13:4 – Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.

• 1 Tim 5:14 – So I would have younger widows marry, bear children, manage their households, and give the adversary no occasion for slander.

• Tit 2:5 – to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.

• 1 Pet 3:1 – Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives–

• 1 Pet 3:7 – Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.

Of wives

• Michal (1 Sam 19:11-18)
• Abigail (1 Sam 25:14-42)
• Pilate’s wife (Mt 27:19)

• Described positively

  • A fruitful vine (Ps 128:3)

  • Excellent (Prov 12:4; 31:10)

  • Crown of her husband (Prov 12:4)

  • A good thing for the husband (Prov 18:22)

  • Prudent (Prov 19:14)

  • Fears the Lord (Prov 31:30)

  • Trustworthy (Prov 31:11)

  • Does her husband good, not harm (Prov 31:12)

  • Pure (1 Pet 3:2)

  • Gentle & quiet spirit (1 Pet 3:4)

Of husband and wife

• Isaac and Rebekah (Gen 24:1-7, 67; 25:21; 26:8)
• Woman who fears the LORD; her husband (Prov 31:10-12, 23, 28-29)
• Aquila and Priscilla (Acts 18:2-3, 26)

• Sarah’s submission (1 Pet 3:5-6)

• Described negatively
  • Brings shame; rottenness in his bones (Prov 12:4)
  • Quarrelsome (Prov 19:13; 21:9, 19; 25:24)

• Samson and Philistine wife (Jud 14:1-15:8)
• David taking Bathsheba as wife (2 Sam 11:27; 2 Sam 12:9-10)
• Adonijah requesting Abishag as wife (1 Kgs 2:13-25)
• Solomon marrying Gentile wives (1 Kgs 11:1-8)
• Ahab marrying Jezebel (1 Kgs 16:31)
• Herod marrying his brother’s wife (Mk 6:18; Lk 3:19)

• Adam and Even (Gen 3:6-19)
• Jacob and Rachel and Leah (Gen 29:31-33; 30:1-2)
• Ahab and Jezebel (1 Kgs 21:25)
• Jehoram and the daughter of Ahab (2 Kgs 8:18)
• Mordecai and Zeresh (Esth 5:14)
• Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:1-11)

• Rebekah’s deception (Gen 27:5-13)
• Delilah (Judg 16:6)
• Mical despising David (2 Sam 6:16, 20-23)
• Queen Vashti’s disobedience (Est 1:10-20)
• Job’s wife (Job 2:9-10)

Marriage as connected to sexual union and child-bearing

• Gen 16:3 – So, after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her servant, and gave her to Abram her husband as a wife.
• Gen 29:28 – Jacob did so, and completed her week. Then Laban gave him his daughter Rachel to be his wife.
• Gen 29:30 – So Jacob went in to Rachel also, and he loved Rachel more than Leah, and served Laban for another seven years.
• Gen 30:4 – So she gave him her servant Bilhah as a wife, and Jacob went in to her.
• Gen 30:9 – When Leah saw that she had ceased bearing children, she took her servant Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife.
• Gen 38:14 – she took off her widow’s garments and covered herself with a veil, wrapping herself up, and sat at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the road to Timnah. For she saw that Shelah was grown up, and she had not been given to him in marriage.
• Ex 6:20 – Amram took as his wife Jochebed his father’s sister, and she bore him Aaron and Moses, the years of the life of Amram being 137 years.
• Ex 6:23 – Aaron took as his wife Elisheba, the daughter of Amminadab and the sister of Nahshon, and she bore him Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar.
• Ex 6:25 – Eleazar, Aaron’s son, took as his wife one of the daughters of Putiel, and she bore him Phinehas. These are the heads of the fathers’ houses of the Levites by their clans.
• Ex 22:16 – “If a man seduces a virgin who is not engaged to be married and lies with her, he shall give the bride-price for her and make her his wife.
• Deut 21:13 – And she shall take off the clothes in which she was captured and shall remain in your house and lament her father and her mother a full month. After that you may go in to her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife.
• Deut 22:29 – then the man who lay with her shall give to the father of the young woman fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife, because he has violated her. He may not divorce her all his days.
• Deut 25:5 – “If brothers dwell together, and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the dead man shall not be married outside the family to a stranger. Her husband’s brother shall go in to her and take her as his wife and perform the duty of a husband’s brother to her.
• Judg 15:1 – After some days, at the time of wheat harvest, Samson went to visit his wife with a young goat. And he said, “I will go in to my wife in the chamber.” But her father would not allow him to go in.
• Judg 21:1 – Now the men of Israel had sworn at Mizpah, “No one of us shall give his daughter in marriage to Benjamin.”
• Judg 21:7 – What shall we do for wives for those who are left, since we have sworn by the LORD that we will not give them any of our daughters for wives?”
• Judg 21:16 – Then the elders of the congregation said, “What shall we do for wives for those who are left, since the women are destroyed out of Benjamin?”
• Ruth 4:10 – Also Ruth the Moabite, the widow of Mahlon, I have bought to be my wife, to perpetuate the name of the dead in his inheritance, that the name of the dead may not be cut off from among his brothers and from the gate of his native place. You are witnesses this day.”
• Ruth 4:13 – So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife. And he went in to her, and the LORD gave her conception, and she bore a son.
• 2 Sam 11:27 – And when the mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased the LORD.
• 1 Chr 2:21 – Afterward Hezron went in to the daughter of Machir the father of Gilead, whom he married when he was sixty years old, and she bore him Segub.
• 1 Chr 2:35 – So Sheshan gave his daughter in marriage to Jarha his slave, and she bore him Attai.
• 1 Chr 5:1 – The sons of Reuben the firstborn of Israel (for he was the firstborn, but because he defiled his father’s couch, his birthright was given to the sons of Joseph the son of Israel, so that he could not be enrolled as the oldest son;
• Jer 29:6 – Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease.
• Hos 1:3 – So he went and took Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.
• Mal 2:15 – Did he not make them one, with a portion of the Spirit in their union? And what was the one God seeking? Godly offspring. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and let none of you be faithless to the wife of your youth.
• Mt 1:24 – When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife,
• Mt 1:25 – but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.

Marriage as connected to passion

• 1 Cor 7:9 – But if they cannot exercise self-control, they should marry. For it is better to marry than to be aflame with passion.
• 1 Cor 7:36 – If anyone thinks that he is not behaving properly toward his betrothed, if his passions are strong, and it has to be, let him do as he wishes: let them marry–it is no sin.
• 1 Tim 5:11 – But refuse to enroll younger widows, for when their passions draw them away from Christ, they desire to marry

Virginity

• Gen 24:16 – The young woman was very attractive in appearance, a maiden whom no man had known. She went down to the spring and filled her jar and came up.
• Gen 24:43 – behold, I am standing by the spring of water. Let the virgin who comes out to draw water, to whom I shall say, “Please give me a little water from your jar to drink,”
• Lev 21:7 – They shall not marry a prostitute or a woman who has been defiled, neither shall they marry a woman divorced from her husband, for the priest is holy to his God.
• Lev 21:13 – And he shall take a wife in her virginity.
• Lev 21:14 – A widow, or a divorced woman, or a woman who has been defiled, or a prostitute, these he shall not marry. But he shall take as his wife a virgin of his own people
• Deut 22:15 – then the father of the young woman and her mother shall take and bring out the evidence of her virginity to the elders of the city in the gate.
• Deut 22:16 – And the father of the young woman shall say to the elders, ‘I gave my daughter to this man to marry, and he hates her;
• Deut 22:17 – and behold, he has accused her of misconduct, saying, “I did not find in your daughter evidence of virginity.” And yet this is the evidence of my daughter’s virginity.’ And they shall spread the cloak before the elders of the city.
• Deut 22:18 – Then the elders of that city shall take the man and whip him,
• Deut 22:19 – and they shall fine him a hundred shekels of silver and give them to the father of the young woman, because he has brought a bad name upon a virgin of Israel. And she shall be his wife. He may not divorce her all his days.
• Deut 22:20 – But if the thing is true, that evidence of virginity was not found in the young woman,
• Deut 22:21 – then they shall bring out the young woman to the door of her father’s house, and the men of her city shall stone her to death with stones, because she has done an outrageous thing in Israel by whoring in her father’s house. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.
• Judg 21:12 – And they found among the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead 400 young virgins who had not known a man by lying with him, and they brought them to the camp at Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan.
• Isa 62:5 – For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your sons marry you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you. [footnote text=“&quot;A young woman&quot; is a translation of the Hebrew word that means a virgin.”]
• Ezek 44:22 – They shall not marry a widow or a divorced woman, but only virgins of the offspring of the house of Israel, or a widow who is the widow of a priest.
• Lk 2:36 – And there was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years, having lived with her husband seven years from when she was a virgin
• 1 Cor 7:28 – But if you do marry, you have not sinned, and if a betrothed woman marries, she has not sinned. Yet those who marry will have worldly troubles, and I would spare you that. [footnote text=“&quot;A betrothed woman&quot; is a translation of the Greek word that means a virgin.”]
• 1 Cor 7:34 – and his interests are divided. And the unmarried or betrothed woman is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to be holy in body and spirit. But the married woman is anxious about worldly things, how to please her husband. [footnote text=“&quot;A betrothed woman&quot; is a translation of the Greek word that means a virgin.”]
• 2 Cor 11:2 – I feel a divine jealousy for you, for I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ.

Sex to be only with one’s spouse

• Prov 5:18 – Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth,
• Prov 5:19 – a lovely deer, a graceful doe. Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight; be intoxicated always in her love.
• Prov 5:20 – Why should you be intoxicated, my son, with a forbidden woman and embrace the bosom of an adulteress?
• Prov 5:21 – For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the LORD, and he ponders all his paths.
• 1 Cor 7:2 – But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband.
• 1 Cor 7:5 – Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer; but then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.
• 1 Cor 7:9 – But if they cannot exercise self-control, they should marry. For it is better to marry than to be aflame with passion.
• Heb 13:4 – Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.

Prohibitions regarding sex and marriage

• Not to take wife of another man or family member
  • Deut 22:22 – “If a man is found lying with the wife of another man, both of them shall die, the man who lay with the woman, and the woman. So you shall purge the evil from Israel.
  • Deut 22:23 – “If there is a betrothed virgin, and a man meets her in the city and lies with her,
  • Deut 22:24 – then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city, and you shall stone them to death with stones, the young woman because she did not cry for help though she was in the city, and the man because he violated his neighbor’s wife. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.
  • Deut 22:30 – “A man shall not take his father’s wife, so that he does not uncover his father’s nakedness.
  • Lev 18:20 – And you shall not lie sexually with your neighbor’s wife and so make yourself unclean with her.
  • Lev 20:21 – If a man takes his brother’s wife, it is impurity. He has uncovered his brother’s nakedness; they shall be childless.
  • Prov 6:27 – Can a man carry fire next to his chest and his clothes not be burned?
  • Prov 6:28 – Or can one walk on hot coals and his feet not be scorched?
  • Prov 6:29 – So is he who goes in to his neighbor’s wife; none who touches her will go unpunished.
  • Ezek 22:11 – One commits abomination with his neighbor’s wife; another lewdly defiles his daughter-in-law; another in you violates his sister, his father’s daughter.
  • Mk 6:18 – For John had been saying to Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.”
  • Lk 3:19 – But Herod the tetrarch, who had been reproved by him for Herodias, his brother’s wife, and for all the evil things that Herod had done
  • 1 Cor 5:1 – It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father’s wife.
• Not to deprive spouse of sex
  • 1 Cor 7:3 – The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband.
  • 1 Cor 7:4 – For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does.
  • 1 Cor 7:5 – Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer; but then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.

• Mal 2:16 – “For the man who hates and divorces, says the LORD, the God of Israel, covers his garment with violence, says the LORD of hosts. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and do not be faithless.”
• Mt 19:8 – He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.
• 1 Cor 7:11 – (but if she does, she should remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband), and the husband should not divorce his wife.

• Deut 24:1 – “When a man takes a wife and marries her, if then she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, and she departs out of his house,
• Jer 3:8 – She saw that for all the adulteries of that faithless one, Israel, I had sent her away with a decree of divorce. Yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but she too went and played the whore.
• Mt 1:19 – And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.
• Mt 5:32 – But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery. And whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
• Mt 19:9 – And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.”

• Deut 22:13 – “If any man takes a wife and goes in to her and then hates her
• Deut 22:19 – and they shall fine him a hundred shekels of silver and give them to the father of the young woman, because he has brought a bad name upon a virgin of Israel. And she shall be his wife. He may not divorce her all his days.
• Deut 24:3 – and the latter man hates her and writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, or if the latter man dies, who took her to be his wife,
• Mal 2:16 – “For the man who hates and divorces, says the LORD, the God of Israel, covers his garment with violence, says the LORD of hosts. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and do not be faithless.”

• 1 Cor 7:12 – To the rest I say (I, not the Lord) that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he should not divorce her.
• 1 Cor 7:13 – If any woman has a husband who is an unbeliever, and he consents to live with her, she should not divorce him.

• Deut 24:4 – then her former husband, who sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after she has been defiled, for that is an abomination before the LORD. And you shall not bring sin upon the land that the LORD your God is giving you for an inheritance.
• Jer 3:1 – “If a man divorces his wife and she goes from him and becomes another man’s wife, will he return to her? Would not that land be greatly polluted? You have played the whore with many lovers; and would you return to me? declares the LORD.
• Mt 19:8 – He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.
• Mt 19:9 – And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.”
• Mk 10:11 – And he said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her,
• Mk 10:12 – and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”
• Lk 16:18 – “Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery.

• Deut 24:1 – “When a man takes a wife and marries her, if then she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, and she departs out of his house,
• Deut 24:2 – and if she goes and becomes another man’s wife,
• Deut 24:3 – and the latter man hates her and writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, or if the latter man dies, who took her to be his wife,
• Deut 24:4 – then her former husband, who sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after she has been defiled, for that is an abomination before the LORD. And you shall not bring sin upon the land that the LORD your God is giving you for an inheritance.
• Mt 5:32 – But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery. And whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
• Lk 16:18 – “Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery.

Questions posed to Jesus about divorce and remarriage

• Mt 19:3 – And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?”
• Mt 19:7 – They said to him, “Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?”
• Mt 22:28 – In the resurrection, therefore, of the seven, whose wife will she be? For they all had her.”
• Mk 10:2 – And Pharisees came up and in order to test him asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?”
• Mk 12:23 – In the resurrection, when they rise again, whose wife will she be? For the seven had her as wife.”
• Lk 20:33 – In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had her as wife.”

• Abraham (Gen 25:1; 1 Chron 1:32)
• Ruth (Ruth 3:1-4:13)
• Abigail (1 Sam 25:39-42)
• The Samaritan woman (Jn 4:16-18)

• 1 Cor 7:39 – A wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband dies, she is free to be married to whom she wishes, only in the Lord.
• 1 Tim 5:14 – So I would have younger widows marry, bear children, manage their households, and give the adversary no occasion for slander.

Actions involved in marriage

• Man sees
  • Gen 34:2 – And when Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the land, saw her, he seized her and lay with her and humiliated her.
  • Gen 38:2 – There Judah saw the daughter of a certain Canaanite whose name was Shua. He took her and went in to her,
  • Gen 38:3 – and she conceived and bore a son, and he called his name Er.
  • Gen 38:4 – She conceived again and bore a son, and she called his name Onan.
  • Gen 38:5 – Yet again she bore a son, and she called his name Shelah. Judah was in Chezib when she bore him.
  • Deut 21:11 – and you see among the captives a beautiful woman, and you desire to take her to be your wife,
  • Judg 14:2 – Then he came up and told his father and mother, “I saw one of the daughters of the Philistines at Timnah. Now get her for me as my wife.”
• Man requests
  • Gen 29:18 – Jacob loved Rachel. And he said, “I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel.”
  • Gen 34:4 – So Shechem spoke to his father Hamor, saying, “Get me this girl for my wife.”
  • Judg 14:2 – Then he came up and told his father and mother, “I saw one of the daughters of the Philistines at Timnah. Now get her for me as my wife.”
  • Judg 14:3 – But his father and mother said to him, “Is there not a woman among the daughters of your relatives, or among all our people, that you must go to take a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?” But Samson said to his father, “Get her for me, for she is right in my eyes.”
  • 1 Sam 25:39 – When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, “Blessed be the LORD who has avenged the insult I received at the hand of Nabal, and has kept back his servant from wrongdoing. The LORD has returned the evil of Nabal on his own head.” Then David sent and spoke to Abigail, to take her as his wife.
  • 1 Sam 25:40 – When the servants of David came to Abigail at Carmel, they said to her, “David has sent us to you to take you to him as his wife.”
• Woman requests
  • Ruth 3:9 – He said, “Who are you?” And she answered, “I am Ruth, your servant. Spread your wings over your servant, for you are a redeemer.”
  • Ruth 3:10 – And he said, “May you be blessed by the LORD, my daughter. You have made this last kindness greater than the first in that you have not gone after young men, whether poor or rich.
• Man pays bride price to bride’s family to be betrothed
  • Gen 34:11 – Shechem also said to her father and to her brothers, “Let me find favor in your eyes, and whatever you say to me I will give.
  • Gen 34:12 – Ask me for as great a bride price and gift as you will, and I will give whatever you say to me. Only give me the young woman to be my wife.”
  • Ex 22:16 – “If a man seduces a virgin who is not engaged to be married and lies with her, he shall give the bride-price for her and make her his wife.
  • Deut 22:29 – then the man who lay with her shall give to the father of the young woman fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife, because he has violated her. He may not divorce her all his days.
  • 2 Sam 3:14 – Then David sent messengers to Ish-bosheth, Saul’s son, saying, “Give me my wife Michal, for whom I paid the bridal price of a hundred foreskins of the Philistines.”
• Woman obeys
  • Gen 24:57 – They said, “Let us call the young woman and ask her.”
  • Gen 24:58 – And they called Rebekah and said to her, “Will you go with this man?” She said, “I will go.”
  • Gen 24:61 – Then Rebekah and her young women arose and rode on the camels and followed the man. Thus the servant took Rebekah and went his way.
  • 1 Sam 25:40 – When the servants of David came to Abigail at Carmel, they said to her, “David has sent us to you to take you to him as his wife.”
  • 1 Sam 25:41 – And she rose and bowed with her face to the ground and said, “Behold, your handmaid is a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my lord.”
  • 1 Sam 25:42 – And Abigail hurried and rose and mounted a donkey, and her five young women attended her. She followed the messengers of David and became his wife.

• Man takes a wife [footnote text=“The phrase &quot;takes a wife&quot; is sometimes translated as &quot;marries.&quot;”]

  • Lamech
    • Gen 4:19 – And Lamech took two wives. The name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other Zillah.
  • Sons of God
    • Gen 6:2 – the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose.
  • Abraham
    • Gen 11:29 – And Abram and Nahor took wives. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor’s wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran the father of Milcah and Iscah.
    • Gen 20:12 – Besides, she is indeed my sister, the daughter of my father though not the daughter of my mother, and she became my wife.
  • Nahor
    • Gen 11:29 – And Abram and Nahor took wives. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor’s wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran the father of Milcah and Iscah.
  • Pharaoh
    • Gen 12:19 – Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her for my wife? Now then, here is your wife; take her, and go.”
  • Lot’s sons-in-law
    • Gen 19:14 – So Lot went out and said to his sons-in-law, who were to marry his daughters, “Up! Get out of this place, for the LORD is about to destroy the city.” But he seemed to his sons-in-law to be jesting.
  • Abimelech
    • Gen 20:2 – And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, “She is my sister.” And Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah.
    • Gen 20:3 – But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him, “Behold, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is a man’s wife.”
  • Isaac
    • Gen 24:67 – Then Isaac brought her into the tent of Sarah his mother and took Rebekah, and she became his wife, and he loved her. So Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death.
    • Gen 25:20 – and Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah to be his wife, the daughter of Bethuel the Aramean of Paddan-aram, the sister of Laban the Aramean.
  • Esau
    • Gen 26:34 – When Esau was forty years old, he took Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite to be his wife, and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite
    • Gen 28:9 – Esau went to Ishmael and took as his wife, besides the wives he had, Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, the sister of Nebaioth.
    • Gen 36:2 – Esau took his wives from the Canaanites: Adah the daughter of Elon the Hittite, Oholibamah the daughter of Anah the daughter of Zibeon the Hivite,
    • Gen 36:3 – and Basemath, Ishmael’s daughter, the sister of Nebaioth.
  • Judah
    • Gen 38:2 – There Judah saw the daughter of a certain Canaanite whose name was Shua. He took her and went in to her,
  • Amram
    • Ex 2:1 – Now a man from the house of Levi went and took as his wife a Levite woman.
    • Ex 6:20 – Amram took as his wife Jochebed his father’s sister, and she bore him Aaron and Moses, the years of the life of Amram being 137 years.
  • Aaron
    • Ex 6:23 – Aaron took as his wife Elisheba, the daughter of Amminadab and the sister of Nahshon, and she bore him Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar.
  • Eleazar
    • Ex 6:25 – Eleazar, Aaron’s son, took as his wife one of the daughters of Putiel, and she bore him Phinehas. These are the heads of the fathers’ houses of the Levites by their clans.
  • Moses
    • Num 12:1 – Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married, for he had married a Cushite woman.
  • God’s people who married foreign women
    • Judg 3:6 – And their daughters they took to themselves for wives, and their own daughters they gave to their sons, and they served their gods.
    • Ezra 9:2 – For they have taken some of their daughters to be wives for themselves and for their sons, so that the holy race has mixed itself with the peoples of the lands. And in this faithlessness the hand of the officials and chief men has been foremost.”
    • Ezra 10:2 – And Shecaniah the son of Jehiel, of the sons of Elam, addressed Ezra: “We have broken faith with our God and have married foreign women from the peoples of the land, but even now there is hope for Israel in spite of this.
    • Ezra 10:10 – And Ezra the priest stood up and said to them, “You have broken faith and married foreign women, and so increased the guilt of Israel.
    • Ezra 10:14 – Let our officials stand for the whole assembly. Let all in our cities who have taken foreign wives come at appointed times, and with them the elders and judges of every city, until the fierce wrath of our God over this matter is turned away from us.”
    • Ezra 10:17 – and by the first day of the first month they had come to the end of all the men who had married foreign women.
    • Ezra 10:18 – Now there were found some of the sons of the priests who had married foreign women: Maaseiah, Eliezer, Jarib, and Gedaliah, some of the sons of Jeshua the son of Jozadak and his brothers.
    • Ezra 10:44 – All these had married foreign women, and some of the women had even borne children.
    • Neh 13:23 – In those days also I saw the Jews who had married women of Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab.
    • Neh 13:27 – Shall we then listen to you and do all this great evil and act treacherously against our God by marrying foreign women?”
  • Samson
    • Judg 14:8 – After some days he returned to take her. And he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion, and behold, there was a swarm of bees in the body of the lion, and honey.
  • People of Benjamin
    • Judg 21:23 – And the people of Benjamin did so and took their wives, according to their number, from the dancers whom they carried off. Then they went and returned to their inheritance and rebuilt the towns and lived in them.
  • Mahlon and Chilion
    • Ruth 1:4 – These took Moabite wives; the name of the one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth. They lived there about ten years,
  • Boaz
    • Ruth 4:13 – So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife. And he went in to her, and the LORD gave her conception, and she bore a son.
  • David
    • 1 Sam 25:39 – When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, “Blessed be the LORD who has avenged the insult I received at the hand of Nabal, and has kept back his servant from wrongdoing. The LORD has returned the evil of Nabal on his own head.” Then David sent and spoke to Abigail, to take her as his wife.
    • 1 Sam 25:43 – David also took Ahinoam of Jezreel, and both of them became his wives.
    • 2 Sam 12:9 – Why have you despised the word of the LORD, to do what is evil in his sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and have taken his wife to be your wife and have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites.
    • 2 Sam 12:10 – Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.’
  • Ahimaaz
    • 1 Kgs 4:15 – Ahimaaz, in Naphtali (he had taken Basemath the daughter of Solomon as his wife);
  • Solomon
    • 1 Kgs 7:8 – His own house where he was to dwell, in the other court back of the hall, was of like workmanship. Solomon also made a house like this hall for Pharaoh’s daughter whom he had taken in marriage.
  • Ahab
    • 1 Kgs 16:31 – And as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, he took for his wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and went and served Baal and worshiped him.
  • Caleb
    • 1 Chr 2:19 – When Azubah died, Caleb married Ephrath, who bore him Hur.
  • Hezron
    • 1 Chr 2:21 – Afterward Hezron went in to the daughter of Machir the father of Gilead, whom he married when he was sixty years old, and she bore him Segub.
  • Mered
    • 1 Chr 4:17 – The sons of Ezrah: Jether, Mered, Epher, and Jalon. These are the sons of Bithiah, the daughter of Pharaoh, whom Mered married; and she conceived and bore Miriam, Shammai, and Ishbah, the father of Eshtemoa.
  • Sons of Kish
    • 1 Chr 23:22 – Eleazar died having no sons, but only daughters; their kinsmen, the sons of Kish, married them.
  • Rehoboam
    • 2 Chr 11:18 – Rehoboam took as wife Mahalath the daughter of Jerimoth the son of David, and of Abihail the daughter of Eliab the son of Jesse,
    • 2 Chr 11:20 – After her he took Maacah the daughter of Absalom, who bore him Abijah, Attai, Ziza, and Shelomith.
    • 2 Chr 11:21 – Rehoboam loved Maacah the daughter of Absalom above all his wives and concubines (he took eighteen wives and sixty concubines, and fathered twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters).
  • Abijah
    • 2 Chr 13:21 – But Abijah grew mighty. And he took fourteen wives and had twenty-two sons and sixteen daughters.
  • Jehoiada
    • 2 Chr 24:3 – Jehoiada got for him two wives, and he had sons and daughters.
  • Sons of Barzillai
    • Ezra 2:61 – Also, of the sons of the priests: the sons of Habaiah, the sons of Hakkoz, and the sons of Barzillai (who had taken a wife from the daughters of Barzillai the Gileadite, and was called by their name).
    • Neh 7:63 – Also, of the priests: the sons of Hobaiah, the sons of Hakkoz, the sons of Barzillai (who had taken a wife of the daughters of Barzillai the Gileadite and was called by their name).
  • Hosea
    • Hos 1:3 – So he went and took Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.
  • Joseph
    • Mt 1:24 – When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife,
  • Herod
    • Mk 6:17 – For it was Herod who had sent and seized John and bound him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, because he had married her.
  • Brothers of Jesus
    • 1 Cor 9:5 – Do we not have the right to take along a believing wife, as do the other apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas?
  • Cephas (Peter)
    • 1 Cor 9:5 – Do we not have the right to take along a believing wife, as do the other apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas?

• Man given a wife

  • Gen 41:45 – And Pharaoh called Joseph’s name Zaphenath-paneah. And he gave him in marriage Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera priest of On. So Joseph went out over the land of Egypt.
  • 1 Chr 7:15 – And Machir took a wife for Huppim and for Shuppim. The name of his sister was Maacah. And the name of the second was Zelophehad, and Zelophehad had daughters.

Betrothal

• Deut 20:7 – And is there any man who has betrothed a wife and has not taken her? Let him go back to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man take her.’
• Hos 2:19 – And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy.
• Hos 2:20 – I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the LORD.
• Betrothed upon paying bride price to bride’s father
  • Gen 29:18 – Jacob loved Rachel. And he said, “I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel.”
  • Gen 34:11 – Shechem also said to her father and to her brothers, “Let me find favor in your eyes, and whatever you say to me I will give.
  • Gen 34:12 – Ask me for as great a bride price and gift as you will, and I will give whatever you say to me. Only give me the young woman to be my wife.”
  • Ex 22:16 – “If a man seduces a virgin who is not engaged to be married and lies with her, he shall give the bride-price for her and make her his wife.
  • 1 Sam 18:25 – Then Saul said, “Thus shall you say to David, ‘The king desires no bride-price except a hundred foreskins of the Philistines, that he may be avenged of the king’s enemies.'” Now Saul thought to make David fall by the hand of the Philistines.
  • 2 Sam 3:14 – Then David sent messengers to Ish-bosheth, Saul’s son, saying, “Give me my wife Michal, for whom I paid the bridal price of a hundred foreskins of the Philistines.”
• Punishment for lying with a betrothed woman
  • Deut 22:23 – “If there is a betrothed virgin, and a man meets her in the city and lies with her,
  • Deut 22:24 – then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city, and you shall stone them to death with stones, the young woman because she did not cry for help though she was in the city, and the man because he violated his neighbor’s wife. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.

  • Deut 22:25 – “But if in the open country a man meets a young woman who is betrothed, and the man seizes her and lies with her, then only the man who lay with her shall die.

• Betrothal of virgins
  • Deut 22:23 – “If there is a betrothed virgin, and a man meets her in the city and lies with her
  • Lk 1:27 – to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary.
  • 2 Cor 11:2 – I feel a divine jealousy for you, for I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ.

Family involvement in marriage

• Fathers give their daughters in marriage
  • Gen 24:50 – Then Laban and Bethuel answered and said, “The thing has come from the LORD; we cannot speak to you bad or good.
  • Gen 24:51 – Behold, Rebekah is before you; take her and go, and let her be the wife of your master’s son, as the LORD has spoken.”
  • Gen 29:19 – Laban said, “It is better that I give her to you than that I should give her to any other man; stay with me.”
  • Gen 29:28 – Jacob did so, and completed her week. Then Laban gave him his daughter Rachel to be his wife.
  • Gen 34:4 – So Shechem spoke to his father Hamor, saying, “Get me this girl for my wife.”
  • Gen 34:8 – But Hamor spoke with them, saying, “The soul of my son Shechem longs for your daughter. Please give her to him to be his wife.
  • Gen 34:9 – Make marriages with us. Give your daughters to us, and take our daughters for yourselves.
  • Gen 34:21 – “These men are at peace with us; let them dwell in the land and trade in it, for behold, the land is large enough for them. Let us take their daughters as wives, and let us give them our daughters.
  • Gen 38:14 – she took off her widow’s garments and covered herself with a veil, wrapping herself up, and sat at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the road to Timnah. For she saw that Shelah was grown up, and she had not been given to him in marriage.
  • Ex 22:17 – If her father utterly refuses to give her to him, he shall pay money equal to the bride-price for virgins.
  • Deut 22:16 – And the father of the young woman shall say to the elders, ‘I gave my daughter to this man to marry, and he hates her
  • Josh 15:16 – And Caleb said, “Whoever strikes Kiriath-sepher and captures it, to him will I give Achsah my daughter as wife.”
  • Josh 15:17 – And Othniel the son of Kenaz, the brother of Caleb, captured it. And he gave him Achsah his daughter as wife.
  • Judg 1:12 – And Caleb said, “He who attacks Kiriath-sepher and captures it, I will give him Achsah my daughter for a wife.”
  • Judg 1:13 – And Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother, captured it. And he gave him Achsah his daughter for a wife.
  • Judg 12:9 – He had thirty sons, and thirty daughters he gave in marriage outside his clan, and thirty daughters he brought in from outside for his sons. And he judged Israel seven years.
  • Judg 14:20 – And Samson’s wife was given to his companion, who had been his best man.
  • Judg 15:2 – And her father said, “I really thought that you utterly hated her, so I gave her to your companion. Is not her younger sister more beautiful than she? Please take her instead.”
  • 1 Sam 18:17 – Then Saul said to David, “Here is my elder daughter Merab. I will give her to you for a wife. Only be valiant for me and fight the LORD’s battles.” For Saul thought, “Let not my hand be against him, but let the hand of the Philistines be against him.”
  • 1 Sam 18:19 – But at the time when Merab, Saul’s daughter, should have been given to David, she was given to Adriel the Meholathite for a wife.
  • 1 Sam 18:21 – Saul thought, “Let me give her to him, that she may be a snare for him and that the hand of the Philistines may be against him.” Therefore Saul said to David a second time, “You shall now be my son-in-law.”
  • 1 Sam 18:27 – David arose and went, along with his men, and killed two hundred of the Philistines. And David brought their foreskins, which were given in full number to the king, that he might become the king’s son-in-law. And Saul gave him his daughter Michal for a wife.
  • 1 Sam 25:44 – Saul had given Michal his daughter, David’s wife, to Palti the son of Laish, who was of Gallim.
  • 2 Kgs 14:9 – And Jehoash king of Israel sent word to Amaziah king of Judah, “A thistle on Lebanon sent to a cedar on Lebanon, saying, ‘Give your daughter to my son for a wife,’ and a wild beast of Lebanon passed by and trampled down the thistle.
  • 1 Chr 2:35 – So Sheshan gave his daughter in marriage to Jarha his slave, and she bore him Attai.
  • 2 Chr 25:18 – And Joash the king of Israel sent word to Amaziah king of Judah, “A thistle on Lebanon sent to a cedar on Lebanon, saying, ‘Give your daughter to my son for a wife,’ and a wild beast of Lebanon passed by and trampled down the thistle.
• Parental involvement in choice of spouse
  • Gen 24:3 – that I may make you swear by the LORD, the God of heaven and God of the earth, that you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell,
  • Gen 24:4 – but will go to my country and to my kindred, and take a wife for my son Isaac.”
  • Gen 24:7 – The LORD, the God of heaven, who took me from my father’s house and from the land of my kindred, and who spoke to me and swore to me, ‘To your offspring I will give this land,’ he will send his angel before you, and you shall take a wife for my son from there.
  • Gen 24:37 – My master made me swear, saying, ‘You shall not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, in whose land I dwell,
  • Gen 24:38 – but you shall go to my father’s house and to my clan and take a wife for my son.’
  • Gen 24:40 – But he said to me, ‘The LORD, before whom I have walked, will send his angel with you and prosper your way. You shall take a wife for my son from my clan and from my father’s house.
  • Gen 28:1 – Then Isaac called Jacob and blessed him and directed him, “You must not take a wife from the Canaanite women.
  • Gen 28:2 – Arise, go to Paddan-aram to the house of Bethuel your mother’s father, and take as your wife from there one of the daughters of Laban your mother’s brother.
  • Gen 28:6 – Now Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Paddan-aram to take a wife from there, and that as he blessed him he directed him, “You must not take a wife from the Canaanite women,”
  • Gen 38:6 – And Judah took a wife for Er his firstborn, and her name was Tamar.
  • Judg 12:9 – He had thirty sons, and thirty daughters he gave in marriage outside his clan, and thirty daughters he brought in from outside for his sons. And he judged Israel seven years.
  • Judg 14:3 – But his father and mother said to him, “Is there not a woman among the daughters of your relatives, or among all our people, that you must go to take a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?” But Samson said to his father, “Get her for me, for she is right in my eyes.”
  • Ruth 3:1 – Then Naomi her mother-in-law said to her, “My daughter, should I not seek rest for you, that it may be well with you?
  • Ruth 3:2 – Is not Boaz our relative, with whose young women you were? See, he is winnowing barley tonight at the threshing floor.
  • Ruth 3:3 – Wash therefore and anoint yourself, and put on your cloak and go down to the threshing floor, but do not make yourself known to the man until he has finished eating and drinking.
  • Ruth 3:4 – But when he lies down, observe the place where he lies. Then go and uncover his feet and lie down, and he will tell you what to do.”
• Parents keep evidence of virginity
  • Deut 22:15 – then the father of the young woman and her mother shall take and bring out the evidence of her virginity to the elders of the city in the gate.
  • Deut 22:17 – and behold, he has accused her of misconduct, saying, “I did not find in your daughter evidence of virginity.” And yet this is the evidence of my daughter’s virginity.’ And they shall spread the cloak before the elders of the city.
• Family blesses
  • Gen 24:60 – And they blessed Rebekah and said to her, “Our sister, may you become thousands of ten thousands, and may your offspring possess the gate of those who hate them!”

Marriage feast

• Gen 29:21 – Then Jacob said to Laban, “Give me my wife that I may go in to her, for my time is completed.”
• Gen 29:22 – So Laban gathered together all the people of the place and made a feast.
• Judg 14:10 – His father went down to the woman, and Samson prepared a feast there, for so the young men used to do.
• Judg 14:12 – And Samson said to them, “Let me now put a riddle to you. If you can tell me what it is, within the seven days of the feast, and find it out, then I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothes,
• Mt 9:15 – And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.
• Mt 22:1 – And again Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying,
• Mt 22:2 – “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son,
• Mt 22:3 – and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come.
• Mt 22:4 – Again he sent other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, See, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.’
• Mt 22:8 – Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy.
• Mt 22:9 – Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.’
• Mt 22:10 – And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good. So the wedding hall was filled with guests.
• Mt 25:10 – And while they were going to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was shut.
• Mk 2:19 – And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast.
• Lk 12:36 – and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast, so that they may open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks.
• Lk 14:7 – Now he told a parable to those who were invited, when he noticed how they chose the places of honor, saying to them,
• Lk 14:8 – “When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you be invited by him,
• Jn 2:1 – On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.
• Jn 2:2 – Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples.
• Jn 2:3 – When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.”
• Jn 2:8 – And he said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.” So they took it.
• Jn 2:9 – When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom
• Jn 2:10 – and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.”

Multiple wives and concubines

• Gen 16:3 – So, after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her servant, and gave her to Abram her husband as a wife.
• Gen 30:4 – So she gave him her servant Bilhah as a wife, and Jacob went in to her.
• Gen 30:9 – When Leah saw that she had ceased bearing children, she took her servant Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife.
• Gen 4:19 – And Lamech took two wives. The name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other Zillah.
• Gen 28:9 – Esau went to Ishmael and took as his wife, besides the wives he had, Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, the sister of Nebaioth.
• Gen 36:2 – Esau took his wives from the Canaanites: Adah the daughter of Elon the Hittite, Oholibamah the daughter of Anah the daughter of Zibeon the Hivite,
• Gen 36:3 – and Basemath, Ishmael’s daughter, the sister of Nebaioth.
• Ex 21:10 – If he takes another wife to himself, he shall not diminish her food, her clothing, or her marital rights.
• Lev 18:18 – And you shall not take a woman as a rival wife to her sister, uncovering her nakedness while her sister is still alive.
• Deut 17:17 – And he shall not acquire many wives for himself, lest his heart turn away, nor shall he acquire for himself excessive silver and gold.
• Deut 21:15 – “If a man has two wives, the one loved and the other unloved, and both the loved and the unloved have borne him children, and if the firstborn son belongs to the unloved,
• Judg 8:30 – Now Gideon had seventy sons, his own offspring, for he had many wives.
• 1 Sam 1:4 – On the day when Elkanah sacrificed, he would give portions to Peninnah his wife and to all her sons and daughters.
• 1 Sam 25:42 – And Abigail hurried and rose and mounted a donkey, and her five young women attended her. She followed the messengers of David and became his wife.
• 1 Sam 25:43 – David also took Ahinoam of Jezreel, and both of them became his wives.
• 2 Sam 5:13 – And David took more concubines and wives from Jerusalem, after he came from Hebron, and more sons and daughters were born to David.
• 1 Kgs 11:3 – He had 700 wives, princesses, and 300 concubines. And his wives turned away his heart.
• 1 Chr 14:3 – And David took more wives in Jerusalem, and David fathered more sons and daughters.
• 2 Chr 11:21 – Rehoboam loved Maacah the daughter of Absalom above all his wives and concubines (he took eighteen wives and sixty concubines, and fathered twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters).
• 2 Chr 13:21 – But Abijah grew mighty. And he took fourteen wives and had twenty-two sons and sixteen daughters.

Concubine(s)

• Of Nahor
  • Gen 22:24 – Moreover, his concubine, whose name was Reumah, bore Tebah, Gaham, Tahash, and Maacah.
• Of Abraham
  • Gen 25:1 – Abraham took another wife, whose name was Keturah.
  • Gen 25:6 – But to the sons of his concubines Abraham gave gifts, and while he was still living he sent them away from his son Isaac, eastward to the east country.
  • 1 Chr 1:32 – The sons of Keturah, Abraham’s concubine: she bore Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah. The sons of Jokshan: Sheba and Dedan.
• Of Jacob/Israel
  • Gen 30:4 – So she gave him her servant Bilhah as a wife, and Jacob went in to her.
  • Gen 35:22 – While Israel lived in that land, Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father’s concubine. And Israel heard of it. Now the sons of Jacob were twelve.
• Of Eliphaz
  • Gen 36:12 – (Timna was a concubine of Eliphaz, Esau’s son; she bore Amalek to Eliphaz.) These are the sons of Adah, Esau’s wife.
• Of a Levite
  • Judg 19:1 – In those days, when there was no king in Israel, a certain Levite was sojourning in the remote parts of the hill country of Ephraim, who took to himself a concubine from Bethlehem in Judah.
  • Judg 19:2 – And his concubine was unfaithful to him, and she went away from him to her father’s house at Bethlehem in Judah, and was there some four months.
• Of Caleb
  • 1 Chr 2:46 – Ephah also, Caleb’s concubine, bore Haran, Moza, and Gazez; and Haran fathered Gazez.
  • 1 Chr 2:48 – Maacah, Caleb’s concubine, bore Sheber and Tirhanah.
• Of Manasseh
  • 1 Chr 7:14 – The sons of Manasseh: Asriel, whom his Aramean concubine bore; she bore Machir the father of Gilead.
• Of rulers
  • Of Gideon
    • Judg 8:31 – And his concubine who was in Shechem also bore him a son, and he called his name Abimelech.
  • Of Saul
    • 2 Sam 3:7 – Now Saul had a concubine whose name was Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah. And Ish-bosheth said to Abner, “Why have you gone in to my father’s concubine?”
    • 2 Sam 21:11 – When David was told what Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, the concubine of Saul, had done,
  • Of David
    • 2 Sam 5:13 – And David took more concubines and wives from Jerusalem, after he came from Hebron, and more sons and daughters were born to David.
    • 2 Sam 15:16 – So the king went out, and all his household after him. And the king left ten concubines to keep the house.
    • 2 Sam 16:21 – Ahithophel said to Absalom, “Go in to your father’s concubines, whom he has left to keep the house, and all Israel will hear that you have made yourself a stench to your father, and the hands of all who are with you will be strengthened.”
    • 2 Sam 16:22 – So they pitched a tent for Absalom on the roof. And Absalom went in to his father’s concubines in the sight of all Israel.
    • 2 Sam 20:3 – And David came to his house at Jerusalem. And the king took the ten concubines whom he had left to care for the house and put them in a house under guard and provided for them, but did not go in to them. So they were shut up until the day of their death, living as if in widowhood.
    • 1 Chr 3:9 – All these were David’s sons, besides the sons of the concubines, and Tamar was their sister.
  • Of Solomon
    • 1 Kgs 11:3 – He had 700 wives, princesses, and 300 concubines. And his wives turned away his heart.
    • Eccl 2:8 – I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces. I got singers, both men and women, and many concubines, the delight of the children of man.
  • Of Rehoboam
    • 2 Chr 11:21 – Rehoboam loved Maacah the daughter of Absalom above all his wives and concubines (he took eighteen wives and sixty concubines, and fathered twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters).
  • Of King Ahasuerus
    • Est 2:14 – In the evening she would go in, and in the morning she would return to the second harem in custody of Shaashgaz, the king’s eunuch, who was in charge of the concubines. She would not go in to the king again, unless the king delighted in her and she was summoned by name.
  • Of a king
    • Song 6:8 – There are sixty queens and eighty concubines, and virgins without number.
    • Song 6:9 – My dove, my perfect one, is the only one, the only one of her mother, pure to her who bore her. The young women saw her and called her blessed; the queens and concubines also, and they praised her.
  • Of Belshazzar
    • Dan 5:2 – Belshazzar, when he tasted the wine, commanded that the vessels of gold and of silver that Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken out of the temple in Jerusalem be brought, that the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines might drink from them.
    • Dan 5:3 – Then they brought in the golden vessels that had been taken out of the temple, the house of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines drank from them.
    • Dan 5:23 – but you have lifted up yourself against the Lord of heaven. And the vessels of his house have been brought in before you, and you and your lords, your wives, and your concubines have drunk wine from them. And you have praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which do not see or hear or know, but the God in whose hand is your breath, and whose are all your ways, you have not honored.

Marriages of kings to demonstrate power or make an alliance

• Deut 17:17 – And he shall not acquire many wives for himself, lest his heart turn away, nor shall he acquire for himself excessive silver and gold.
• 1 Kgs 2:17 – And he said, “Please ask King Solomon–he will not refuse you–to give me Abishag the Shunammite as my wife.”
• 1 Kgs 2:22 – King Solomon answered his mother, “And why do you ask Abishag the Shunammite for Adonijah? Ask for him the kingdom also, for he is my older brother, and on his side are Abiathar the priest and Joab the son of Zeruiah.”
• 1 Kgs 3:1   Solomon made a marriage alliance with Pharaoh king of Egypt. He took Pharaoh’s daughter and brought her into the city of David until he had finished building his own house and the house of the LORD and the wall around Jerusalem.
• 1 Kgs 7:8 – His own house where he was to dwell, in the other court back of the hall, was of like workmanship. Solomon also made a house like this hall for Pharaoh’s daughter whom he had taken in marriage.
• 1 Kgs 11:19 – And Hadad found great favor in the sight of Pharaoh, so that he gave him in marriage the sister of his own wife, the sister of Tahpenes the queen.
• 1 Kgs 20:2 – And he sent messengers into the city to Ahab king of Israel and said to him, “Thus says Ben-hadad:
• 1 Kgs 20:3 – ‘Your silver and your gold are mine; your best wives and children also are mine.'”
• 1 Kgs 20:5 – The messengers came again and said, “Thus says Ben-hadad: ‘I sent to you, saying, “Deliver to me your silver and your gold, your wives and your children.”
• 1 Kgs 20:7 – Then the king of Israel called all the elders of the land and said, “Mark, now, and see how this man is seeking trouble, for he sent to me for my wives and my children, and for my silver and my gold, and I did not refuse him.”
• 2 Chr 13:21 – But Abijah grew mighty. And he took fourteen wives and had twenty-two sons and sixteen daughters.
• 2 Chr 18:1   Now Jehoshaphat had great riches and honor, and he made a marriage alliance with Ahab.

Certificate of divorce

• Deut 24:1 – “When a man takes a wife and marries her, if then she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, and she departs out of his house,
• Deut 24:2 – and if she goes and becomes another man’s wife,
• Deut 24:3 – and the latter man hates her and writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, or if the latter man dies, who took her to be his wife,
• Mt 5:31 – “It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’
• Mt 5:32 – But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery. And whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
• Mt 19:7 – They said to him, “Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?”
• Mt 19:8 – He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.
• Mk 10:4 – They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce and to send her away.”
• Mk 10:5 – And Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment.

Wives’ headcovering

• 1 Cor 11:5 – but every wife who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head–it is the same as if her head were shaven.
• 1 Cor 11:6 – For if a wife will not cover her head, then she should cut her hair short. But since it is disgraceful for a wife to cut off her hair or shave her head, let her cover her head.
• 1 Cor 11:10 – That is why a wife ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels.
• 1 Cor 11:13 – Judge for yourselves: is it proper for a wife to pray to God with her head uncovered?

Wedding garments

• Mt 22:11 – “But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment.
• Mt 22:12 – And he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless.

Levirate marriage

• Gen 38:8 – Then Judah said to Onan, “Go in to your brother’s wife and perform the duty of a brother-in-law to her, and raise up offspring for your brother.”
• Gen 38:9 – But Onan knew that the offspring would not be his. So whenever he went in to his brother’s wife he would waste the semen on the ground, so as not to give offspring to his brother.
• Gen 38:10 – And what he did was wicked in the sight of the LORD, and he put him to death also.
• Gen 38:11 – Then Judah said to Tamar his daughter-in-law, “Remain a widow in your father’s house, till Shelah my son grows up”–for he feared that he would die, like his brothers. So Tamar went and remained in her father’s house.
• Gen 38:14 – she took off her widow’s garments and covered herself with a veil, wrapping herself up, and sat at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the road to Timnah. For she saw that Shelah was grown up, and she had not been given to him in marriage.
• Deut 25:5 – “If brothers dwell together, and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the dead man shall not be married outside the family to a stranger. Her husband’s brother shall go in to her and take her as his wife and perform the duty of a husband’s brother to her.
• Deut 25:6 – And the first son whom she bears shall succeed to the name of his dead brother, that his name may not be blotted out of Israel.
• Deut 25:7 – And if the man does not wish to take his brother’s wife, then his brother’s wife shall go up to the gate to the elders and say, ‘My husband’s brother refuses to perpetuate his brother’s name in Israel; he will not perform the duty of a husband’s brother to me.’
• Ruth 1:12 – Turn back, my daughters; go your way, for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say I have hope, even if I should have a husband this night and should bear sons,
• Ruth 1:13 – would you therefore wait till they were grown? Would you therefore refrain from marrying? No, my daughters, for it is exceedingly bitter to me for your sake that the hand of the LORD has gone out against me.”
• Ruth 4:5 – Then Boaz said, “The day you buy the field from the hand of Naomi, you also acquire Ruth the Moabite, the widow of the dead, in order to perpetuate the name of the dead in his inheritance.”
• Ruth 4:6 – Then the redeemer said, “I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I impair my own inheritance. Take my right of redemption yourself, for I cannot redeem it.”
• Ruth 4:10 – Also Ruth the Moabite, the widow of Mahlon, I have bought to be my wife, to perpetuate the name of the dead in his inheritance, that the name of the dead may not be cut off from among his brothers and from the gate of his native place. You are witnesses this day.”
• Mt 22:24 – saying, “Teacher, Moses said, ‘If a man dies having no children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother.’
• Mt 22:25 – Now there were seven brothers among us. The first married and died, and having no children left his wife to his brother.
• Mk 12:19 – “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife, but leaves no child, the man must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother.
• Mk 12:20 – There were seven brothers; the first took a wife, and when he died left no offspring.
• Lk 20:28 – and they asked him a question, saying, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies, having a wife but no children, the man must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother.

Punishments

• For sexual behavior outside of marriage
  • Deut 22:20 – But if the thing is true, that evidence of virginity was not found in the young woman,
  • Deut 22:21 – then they shall bring out the young woman to the door of her father’s house, and the men of her city shall stone her to death with stones, because she has done an outrageous thing in Israel by whoring in her father’s house. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.
  • Deut 22:22 – If a man is found lying with the wife of another man, both of them shall die, the man who lay with the woman, and the woman. So you shall purge the evil from Israel.
  • Deut 22:23 – “If there is a betrothed virgin, and a man meets her in the city and lies with her,
  • Deut 22:24 – then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city, and you shall stone them to death with stones, the young woman because she did not cry for help though she was in the city, and the man because he violated his neighbor’s wife. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.
  • Deut 22:25 – “But if in the open country a man meets a young woman who is betrothed, and the man seizes her and lies with her, then only the man who lay with her shall die.
  • Lev 20:10 – “If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.
  • Lev 20:11 – If a man lies with his father’s wife, he has uncovered his father’s nakedness; both of them shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.
  • Lev 20:20 – If a man lies with his uncle’s wife, he has uncovered his uncle’s nakedness; they shall bear their sin; they shall die childless.
  • Lev 20:21 – If a man takes his brother’s wife, it is impurity. He has uncovered his brother’s nakedness; they shall be childless.
• For trying to divorce a hated wife using false accusation of impurity
  • Deut 22:19 – and they shall fine him a hundred shekels of silver and give them to the father of the young woman, because he has brought a bad name upon a virgin of Israel. And she shall be his wife. He may not divorce her all his days.

Wife bound by law to her husband as long as he lives

• Rom 7:2 – Thus a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage.
• Rom 7:3 – Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress.
• 1 Cor 7:39 – A wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband dies, she is free to be married to whom she wishes, only in the Lord.

Inheritance to go to tribe of wife’s husband

• Num 36:3 – But if they are married to any of the sons of the other tribes of the people of Israel, then their inheritance will be taken from the inheritance of our fathers and added to the inheritance of the tribe into which they marry. So it will be taken away from the lot of our inheritance.
• Num 36:4 – And when the jubilee of the people of Israel comes, then their inheritance will be added to the inheritance of the tribe into which they marry, and their inheritance will be taken from the inheritance of the tribe of our fathers.”

Marrying within the clan

• Num 36:6 – This is what the LORD commands concerning the daughters of Zelophehad, ‘Let them marry whom they think best, only they shall marry within the clan of the tribe of their father.

• Mt 19:10 – The disciples said to him, “If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry.”
• 1 Cor 7:8 – To the unmarried and the widows I say that it is good for them to remain single as I am.
• 1 Cor 7:27 – Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be free. Are you free from a wife? Do not seek a wife.
• 1 Cor 7:38 – So then he who marries his betrothed does well, and he who refrains from marriage will do even better.
• 1 Cor 7:40 – Yet in my judgment she is happier if she remains as she is. And I think that I too have the Spirit of God.
• To be spared of worldly troubles
  • 1 Cor 7:28   But if you do marry, you have not sinned, and if a betrothed woman marries, she has not sinned. Yet those who marry will have worldly troubles, and I would spare you that.
  • 1 Cor 7:32 – I want you to be free from anxieties. The unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to please the Lord.
  • 1 Cor 7:33 – But the married man is anxious about worldly things, how to please his wife
  • 1 Cor 7:34 – and his interests are divided. And the unmarried or betrothed woman is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to be holy in body and spirit. But the married woman is anxious about worldly things, how to please her husband.
• Interests divided away from things of the Lord
  • 1 Cor 7:32 – I want you to be free from anxieties. The unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to please the Lord.
  • 1 Cor 7:33 – But the married man is anxious about worldly things, how to please his wife,
  • 1 Cor 7:34 – and his interests are divided. And the unmarried or betrothed woman is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to be holy in body and spirit. But the married woman is anxious about worldly things, how to please her husband.
• To promote good order and secure undivided devotion to the Lord
  • 1 Cor 7:35 – I say this for your own benefit, not to lay any restraint upon you, but to promote good order and to secure your undivided devotion to the Lord.

• 1 Cor 7:12 – To the rest I say (I, not the Lord) that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he should not divorce her.
• 1 Cor 7:14 – For the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy.
• 1 Cor 7:15 – But if the unbelieving partner separates, let it be so. In such cases the brother or sister is not enslaved. God has called you to peace.
• 1 Cor 7:16 – Wife, how do you know whether you will save your husband? Husband, how do you know whether you will save your wife?

• 1 Cor 7:28 – But if you do marry, you have not sinned, and if a betrothed woman marries, she has not sinned. Yet those who marry will have worldly troubles, and I would spare you that.
• 1 Cor 7:36 – If anyone thinks that he is not behaving properly toward his betrothed, if his passions are strong, and it has to be, let him do as he wishes: let them marry–it is no sin.

• 1 Cor 7:27 – Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be free. Are you free from a wife? Do not seek a wife.