Verse collection
Bible verses about marriage
Fourteen verses about marriage, shortest first: the ones read at weddings, and the ones that turn out to matter more in year seven.
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The Bible's marriage verses begin in a garden and end with a wedding, and in between they are plain about the work: love, honor, and the refusal to be pulled apart. The passages below include the ones couples have read aloud for centuries and a few that are better learned quietly, one spouse at a time. Every verse below is quoted from the Berean Standard Bible with a line of context. If you are choosing a reading, the short ones make good vows and the long ones good sermons; if you are choosing one to keep, learn it together.
Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
The sentence that governs everything Paul says next about husbands and wives. Mutual, and out of reverence for Christ, not out of who is stronger.
Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.
Jesus, asked about divorce, answers with the design instead. Ten words, and the ones most often said over a couple at the end of a wedding.
Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them.
The second clause is the one to memorize. Harshness is the ordinary way love wears down, and Paul names it.
He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the LORD.
A good marriage described as a find and a favor, both of them received rather than achieved. Worth saying out loud on an anniversary.
May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth
The wife of your youth: the phrase assumes the marriage lasts long enough for youth to be a memory, and says to keep rejoicing anyway.
A wife of noble character, who can find? She is far more precious than rubies.
The opening of the famous portrait. The question is real: such a partner is rare, and the verse says so before it says anything else.
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her
The measure of a husband's love is Christ giving Himself up for the church. Not leadership first; sacrifice first.
And though one may be overpowered, two can resist. Moreover, a cord of three strands is not quickly broken.
The cord of three strands, read at countless weddings. The third strand is not named, which has let every couple name it themselves.
Nevertheless, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.
Paul's summary of his own passage: love and respect, one word to each. Marriage counselors have built whole books on the pairing.
Marriage should be honored by all and the marriage bed kept undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterers.
Marriage should be honored by all, married or not. The second half is blunt because the first half is precious.
The LORD God also said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make for him a suitable helper.”
The first thing in creation called not good. The helper who answers it is not an assistant but a counterpart, someone corresponding to him.
For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.
The founding text, quoted by Jesus and by Paul. Leave, be united, become one: three movements, in that order.
Mighty waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot sweep it away. If a man were to give all the wealth of his house for love, his offer would be utterly scorned.
Love that floods cannot drown and money cannot buy. The Song is the Bible's one book entirely about romantic love, and this is its thesis.
Husbands, in the same way, treat your wives with consideration as a delicate vessel, and with honor as fellow heirs of the gracious gift of life, so that your prayers will not be hindered.
Peter to husbands: consideration, honor, and a warning that a marriage handled carelessly gets in the way of prayer. The longest passage here and the most practical.
Word counts use this site's counting rule in the Berean Standard Bible. Each reference links to the verse in its chapter, because a verse understood in context lands better than a verse alone. Where a verse is quoted on its own, a trailing comma or a quotation mark left unbalanced is dropped (Mark 10:9, Proverbs 5:18).
A verse for the two of you
Couples who memorize the same verse have a sentence in common for the hard conversations, and the learning is a small shared project in itself. The five-step method takes a few minutes a day: hear the verse aloud, say it while more and more words hide themselves, and finish by reciting it from just the reference. Start with Mark 10:9 or Ephesians 5:21; either is yours in a few evenings.
Questions
What does the Bible say about marriage?
It begins with the design: a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh (Genesis 2:24), which Jesus quotes and adds, what God has joined together, let man not separate (Mark 10:9). It describes the work: husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her (Ephesians 5:25), and submit to one another out of reverence for Christ (Ephesians 5:21). And it calls the whole thing honorable: marriage should be honored by all (Hebrews 13:4).
What are good Bible verses to read at a wedding?
The most read are Genesis 2:24, Ecclesiastes 4:12 (a cord of three strands is not quickly broken), Mark 10:9 (what God has joined together, let man not separate), 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (love is patient, love is kind) and Song of Solomon 8:7 (mighty waters cannot quench love). For vows, the short ones work best; Ephesians 5:21 and Colossians 3:14 both fit in a breath.
Which marriage verse is best to memorize?
Ephesians 5:33 is a good one for a couple to learn together, because it gives one word to each of them, love and respect, in twenty-one words. Colossians 3:19 is eleven words and the most useful in an argument: do not be harsh. A few minutes of practice a day for five days makes either one permanent.
Half remember a different verse?
The words don't need to match exactly, just type what you remember.