85 Bible Verses about Wives

A woman of virtue is a crown to her husband; but she whose behaviour is a cause of shame is like a wasting disease in his bones.

House and wealth are a heritage from fathers, but a wife with good sense is from the Lord.

Who may make discovery of a woman of virtue? For her price is much higher than jewels. The heart of her husband has faith in her, and he will have profit in full measure. She does him good and not evil all the days of her life.read more.
She gets wool and linen, working at the business of her hands. She is like the trading-ships, getting food from far away. She gets up while it is still night, and gives meat to her family, and their food to her servant-girls. After looking at a field with care, she gets it for a price, planting a vine-garden with the profit of her work. She puts a band of strength round her, and makes her arms strong. She sees that her marketing is of profit to her: her light does not go out by night. She puts her hands to the cloth-working rod, and her fingers take the wheel. Her hands are stretched out to the poor; yes, she is open-handed to those who are in need. She has no fear of the snow for her family, for all those in her house are clothed in red. She makes for herself cushions of needlework; her clothing is fair linen and purple. Her husband is a man of note in the public place, when he takes his seat among the responsible men of the land. She makes linen robes and gets a price for them, and traders take her cloth bands for a price. Strength and self-respect are her clothing; she is facing the future with a smile. Her mouth is open to give out wisdom, and the law of mercy is on her tongue. She gives attention to the ways of her family, she does not take her food without working for it. Her children get up and give her honour, and her husband gives her praise, saying, Unnumbered women have done well, but you are better than all of them. Fair looks are a deceit, and a beautiful form is of no value; but a woman who has the fear of the Lord is to be praised. Give her credit for what her hands have made: let her be praised by her works in the public place.

Whoever gets a wife gets a good thing, and has the approval of the Lord.

Let blessing be on your fountain; have joy in the wife of your early years.

Let water from your store and not that of others be your drink, and running water from your fountain.

Wives, be under the authority of your husbands, as of the Lord.

Wives, be under the authority of your husbands, as is right in the Lord.

Wives, be ruled by your husbands; so that even if some of them give no attention to the word, their hearts may be changed by the behaviour of their wives,

Training the younger women to have love for their husbands and children,

For news of what the queen has done will come to the ears of all women, and they will no longer give respect to their husbands when it is said to them, King Ahasuerus gave orders for Vashti the queen to come before him and she came not.

And when this order, given by the king, is made public through all his kingdom (for it is great), all the wives will give honour to their husbands, great as well as small.

But if the servant says clearly, My master and my wife and children are dear to me; I have no desire to be free:

And you husbands, give thought to your way of life with your wives, giving honour to the woman who is the feebler vessel, but who has an equal part in the heritage of the grace of life; so that you may not be kept from prayer.

I will be full of joy in the Lord, my soul will be glad in my God; for he has put on me the clothing of salvation, covering me with the robe of righteousness, as the husband puts on a fair head-dress, and the bride makes herself beautiful with jewels.

And he said to them, Truly I say to you, There is no man who has given up house or wife or brothers or father or mother or children, because of the kingdom of God,

Put no faith in a friend, do not let your hope be placed in a relation: keep watch on the doors of your mouth against her who is resting on your breast.

If your brother, the son of your mother, or your son or your daughter or the wife of your heart, or the friend who is as dear to you as your life, working on you secretly says to you, Let us go and give worship to other gods, strange to you and to your fathers; Gods of the peoples round about you, near or far, from one end of the earth to the other; Do not be guided by him or give attention to him; have no pity on him or mercy, and give him no cover;read more.
But put him to death without question; let your hand be the first stretched out against him to put him to death, and then the hands of all the people. Let him be stoned with stones till he is dead; because it was his purpose to make you false to the Lord your God, who took you out of the land of Egypt, out of the prison-house.

And God made man in his image, in the image of God he made him: male and female he made them.

And the man said, This is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh: let her name be Woman because she was taken out of Man. For this cause will a man go away from his father and his mother and be joined to his wife; and they will be one flesh.

... So give thought to your spirit, and let no one be false to the wife of his early years.

And he said in answer, Have you not seen in the Writings, that he who made them at the first made them male and female, and said, For this cause will a man go away from his father and mother, and be joined to his wife; and the two will become one flesh? So that they are no longer two, but one flesh. Then let not that which has been joined by God be parted by man.

But from the first, male and female made he them. For this cause will a man go away from his father and mother, and be joined to his wife; And the two will become one flesh; so that they are no longer two, but one flesh.read more.
Let not that which has been joined together by God be parted by man.

And the Lord God said, It is not good for the man to be by himself: I will make one like himself as a help to him

And the man gave names to all cattle and to the birds of the air and to every beast of the field; but Adam had no one like himself as a help. And the Lord God sent a deep sleep on the man, and took one of the bones from his side while he was sleeping, joining up the flesh again in its place: And the bone which the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman, and took her to the man.

For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ is the head of the church, being himself the saviour of the body.

But it is important for you to keep this fact in mind, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man, and the head of Christ is God.

To the woman he said, Great will be your pain in childbirth; in sorrow will your children come to birth; still your desire will be for your husband, but he will be your master.

Do not take wives or husbands from among them; do not give your daughters to their sons, or take their daughters for your sons. For through them your sons will be turned from me to the worship of other gods: and the Lord will be moved to wrath against you and send destruction on you quickly.

Or take their daughters for your sons; for when their daughters give worship before their gods, they will make your sons take part with them.

For if you go back, joining yourselves to the rest of these nations who are still among you, getting married to them and living with them and they with you: Then you may be certain that the Lord your God will not go on driving these nations out from before you; but they will become a danger and a cause of sin to you, a whip for your sides and thorns in your eyes, till you are cut off from this good land which the Lord your God has given you.

Wives, be under the authority of your husbands, as of the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ is the head of the church, being himself the saviour of the body. And as the church is under Christ's authority, so let wives be under the rule of their husbands in all things.

Wives, be ruled by your husbands; so that even if some of them give no attention to the word, their hearts may be changed by the behaviour of their wives, When they see your holy behaviour in the fear of God. Do not let your ornaments be those of the body such as dressing of the hair, or putting on of jewels of gold or fair clothing;read more.
But let them be those of the unseen man of the heart, the ever-shining ornament of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great price in the eyes of God. And these were the ornaments of the holy women of the past, whose hope was in God, being ruled by their husbands: As Sarah was ruled by Abraham, naming him lord; whose children you are if you do well, and are not put in fear by any danger.

Training the younger women to have love for their husbands and children, To be wise in mind, clean in heart, kind; working in their houses, living under the authority of their husbands; so that no evil may be said of the word of God.

Do not be false to the married relation.

Do not be false to the married relation.

And the Lord said to Moses, Say to the children of Israel, If any man's wife does wrong, sinning against him By taking as her lover another man, and keeps it secret so that her husband has no knowledge of it, and there is no witness against her, and she is not taken in the act;read more.
If the spirit of doubt comes into her husband's heart, and he has doubts of his wife, with good cause; or if he has doubts of her without cause: Then let him take her to the priest, offering for her the tenth part of an ephah of barley meal, without oil or perfume; for it is a meal offering of a bitter spirit, a meal offering keeping wrongdoing in mind. And the priest will make her come near and put her before the Lord; And the priest will take holy water in a pot and put in it dust from the floor of the House; And he will make the woman come before the Lord with her hair loose, and will put the meal offering, the offering of a bitter spirit, in her hands; and the priest will take in his hand the bitter water causing the curse; And he will make her take an oath, and say to her, If no man has been your lover and you have not been with another in place of your husband, you are free from this bitter water causing the curse; But if you have been with another in place of your husband and have made yourself unclean with a lover: Then the priest will put the oath of the curse on the woman, and say to her, May the Lord make you a curse and an oath among your people, sending on you wasting of the legs and disease of the stomach; And this water of the curse will go into your body, causing disease of your stomach and wasting of your legs: and the woman will say, So be it. And the priest will put these curses in a book, washing out the writing with the bitter water; And he will give to the woman the bitter water for drink; and the bitter water causing the curse will go into her. And the priest will take from her hand the meal offering of doubt, waving it before the Lord, and will take it to the altar; And he will take some of it in his hand, burning it on the altar as a sign, and then he will give the woman the bitter water. And it will be that if the woman has become unclean, sinning against her husband, when she has taken the bitter water it will go into her body, causing disease of the stomach and wasting of the legs, and she will be a curse among her people. But if she is clean she will be free and will have offspring. This is the law for testing a wife who goes with another in place of her husband and becomes unclean; Or for a husband who, in a bitter spirit, has doubts in his heart about his wife; let him take her to the priest, who will put in force this law. Then the man will be free from all wrong, and the woman's sin will be on her.

For a loose woman is a deep hollow, and a strange woman is a narrow water-hole.

For Herod had taken John and put him in prison because of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife. Because John had said to him, It is not right for you to have her.

For Herod himself had sent men out to take John and put him in prison, because of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, whom he had taken for himself. For John said to Herod, It is wrong for you to have your brother's wife.

And if she herself puts away her husband and takes another, she is false to her husband.

But Herod the king, because John had made a protest on account of Herodias, his brother's wife, and other evil things which Herod had done,

It is right for a wife to be with her husband as long as he is living; but when her husband is dead, she is free to be married to another; but only to a Christian. But it will be better for her to keep as she is, in my opinion: and it seems to me that I have the Spirit of God.

But I say to the unmarried and to the widows, It is good for them to be even as I am. But if they have not self-control let them get married; for married life is better than the burning of desire.

Isaac made prayer to the Lord for his wife because she had no children; and the Lord gave ear to his prayer, and Rebekah became with child.

And they said to him, Where is Sarah your wife? And he said, She is in the tent. And he said, I will certainly come back to you in the spring, and Sarah your wife will have a son. And his words came to the ears of Sarah who was at the back of the tent-door. Now Abraham and Sarah were very old, and Sarah was past the time for giving birth.read more.
And Sarah, laughing to herself, said, Now that I am used up am I still to have pleasure, my husband himself being old? And the Lord said, Why was Sarah laughing and saying, Is it possible for me, being old, to give birth to a child? Is there any wonder which the Lord is not able to do? At the time I said, in the spring, I will come back to you, and Sarah will have a child. Then Sarah said, I was not laughing; for she was full of fear. And he said, No, but you were laughing.

Now there was a certain man of Zorah of the family of the Danites, and his name was Manoah; and his wife had never given birth to a child. And the angel of the Lord came to the woman, and said to her, See now! though you have never given birth to children, you will be with child and give birth to a son. Now then take care to have no wine or strong drink and to take no unclean thing for food;read more.
For you are with child and will give birth to a son; his hair is never to be cut, for the child is to be separate to God from his birth; and he will take up the work of freeing Israel from the hands of the Philistines.

So after they had taken food and wine in the guest room, Hannah got up. Now Eli the priest was seated by the pillars of the doorway of the Temple of the Lord. And with grief in her soul, weeping bitterly, she made her prayer to the Lord. And she made an oath, and said, O Lord of armies, if you will truly take note of the sorrow of your servant, not turning away from me but keeping me in mind, and will give me a man-child, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and his hair will never be cut.read more.
Now while she was a long time in prayer before the Lord, Eli was watching her mouth. For Hannah's prayer came from her heart, and though her lips were moving she made no sound: so it seemed to Eli that she was overcome with wine. And Eli said to her, How long are you going to be the worse for drink? Put away the effects of your wine from you. And Hannah, answering him, said, No, my lord, I am a woman whose spirit is broken with sorrow: I have not taken wine or strong drink, but I have been opening my heart before the Lord. Do not take your servant to be a good-for-nothing woman: for my words have come from my stored-up sorrow and pain. Then Eli said to her, Go in peace: and may the God of Israel give you an answer to the prayer you have made to him. And she said, May your servant have grace in your eyes. So the woman went away, and took part in the feast, and her face was no longer sad. And early in the morning they got up, and after worshipping before the Lord they went back to Ramah, to their house: and Elkanah had connection with his wife; and the Lord kept her in mind. Now the time came when Hannah, being with child, gave birth to a son; and she gave him the name Samuel, Because, she said, I made a prayer to the Lord for him.

In the days of Herod, king of Judaea, there was a certain priest, by name Zacharias, of the order of Abijah; and he had a wife of the family of Aaron, and her name was Elisabeth. They were upright in the eyes of God, keeping all the rules and orders of God, and doing no wrong. And they were without children, because Elisabeth had never given birth, and they were at that time very old.read more.
Now it came about that in his turn he was acting as priest before God, And as was the way of the priests, he had to go into the Temple to see to the burning of perfumes. And all the people were offering prayers outside, at the time of the burning of perfumes. And he saw an angel of the Lord in his place on the right side of the altar. And Zacharias was troubled when he saw him, and fear came on him. But the angel said, Have no fear, Zacharias, for your prayer has come to the ears of God, and your wife Elisabeth will have a son, and his name will be John. And you will be glad and have great delight; and numbers of people will have joy at his birth. For he will be great in the eyes of the Lord; he will not take wine or strong drink; and he will be full of the Spirit of God from his birth. And through him great numbers of the children of Israel will be turned to the Lord their God. And he will go before his face in the spirit and power of Elijah, turning the hearts of fathers to their children, and wrongdoers to the way of righteousness; to make ready a people whose hearts have been turned to the Lord. And Zacharias said to the angel, How may I be certain of this? For I am an old man, and my wife is far on in years. And the angel, answering, said, I am Gabriel, whose place is before God; I have been sent to say these words to you and to give you this good news. Now, see, you will be without voice or language till the day when these things come about, because you had not faith in my words, which will have effect at the right time. And the people were waiting for Zacharias and were surprised because he was in the Temple for such a long time. And when he came out he was not able to say anything, and they saw that he had seen a vision in the Temple; and he was making signs to them without words. And when the days of his work in the Temple were ended, he went back to his house. After that time, Elisabeth, being certain that she was to become a mother, kept herself from men's eyes for five months, saying, The Lord has done this to me, for his eyes were on me, to take away my shame in the eyes of men.

Then in that night Saul sent men to David's house to keep watch on him so as to put him to death in the morning: and David's wife Michal said to him, If you do not go away to a safe place tonight you will be put to death in the morning. So Michal let David down through the window, and he went in flight and got away. Then Michal took the image and put it in the bed, with a cushion of goat's hair at its head, and she put clothing over it.read more.
And when Saul sent men to take David, she said, He is ill. And Saul sent his men to see David, saying, Do not come back without him, take him in his bed, so that I may put him to death. And when the men came in, there was the image in the bed, with the cushion of goat's hair at its head And Saul said to Michal, why have you been false to me, letting my hater go and get safely away? And in answer Michal said to Saul, He said to me, Let me go, or I will put you to death.

But one of the young men said to Nabal's wife Abigail, David sent men from the waste land to say kind words to our master, and he gave them a rough answer. But these men have been very good to us; they did us no wrong and nothing of ours was touched while we were with them in the fields: But day and night they were like a wall round us while we were with them, looking after the sheep.read more.
So now, give thought to what you are going to do; for evil is in store for our master and all his house: for he is such a good-for-nothing person that it is not possible to say anything to him. Then Abigail quickly took two hundred cakes of bread and two skins full of wine and five sheep ready for cooking and five measures of dry grain and a hundred parcels of dry grapes and two hundred cakes of figs, and put them on asses. And she said to her young men, Go on in front of me and I will come after you. But she said nothing to her husband Nabal. Now while she was going down under cover of the mountain on her ass, David and his men came down against her, and suddenly she came face to face with them. Now David had said, What was the use of my taking care of this man's goods in the waste land, so that there was no loss of anything which was his? he has only given me back evil for good. May God's punishment be on David, if when morning comes there is so much as one male of his people still living. And when Abigail saw David, she quickly got off her ass, falling down on her face before him. And falling at his feet she said, May the wrong be on me, my lord, on me: let your servant say a word to you, and give ear to the words of your servant. Let my lord give no attention to Nabal, that good-for-nothing: for as his name is, so is he, a man without sense: but I, your servant, did not see the young men whom my lord sent. So now, my lord, by the living God and by your living soul, seeing that the Lord has kept you from the crime of blood and from taking into your hands the punishment for your wrongs, may all your haters, and those who would do evil to my lord, be like Nabal. And let this offering, which your servant gives to my lord, be given to the young men who are with my lord. And may the sin of your servant have forgiveness: for the Lord will certainly make your family strong, because my lord is fighting in the Lord's war; and no evil will be seen in you all your days. And though a man has taken up arms against you, putting your life in danger, still the soul of my lord will be kept safe among the band of the living with the Lord your God; and the souls of those who are against you he will send violently away from him, like stones from a bag. And when the Lord has done for my lord all those good things which he has said he will do for you, and has made you a ruler over Israel; Then you will have no cause for grief, and my lord's heart will not be troubled because you have taken life without cause and have yourself given punishment for your wrongs: and when the Lord has been good to you, then give a thought to your servant. And David said to Abigail, May the Lord, the God of Israel, be praised, who sent you to me today: A blessing on your good sense and on you, who have kept me today from the crime of blood and from taking into my hands the punishment for my wrongs. For truly, by the living Lord, the God of Israel, who has kept me from doing you evil, if you had not been so quick in coming to me and meeting me, by dawn there would not have been in Nabal's house so much as one male living. Then David took from her hands her offering: and he said to her, Go back to your house in peace; see, I have given ear to your voice, and taken your offering with respect.

That old women are to be self-respecting in behaviour, not saying evil of others, not given to taking much wine, teachers of that which is good, Training the younger women to have love for their husbands and children, To be wise in mind, clean in heart, kind; working in their houses, living under the authority of their husbands; so that no evil may be said of the word of God.

And while he was on the judge's seat, his wife sent to him, saying, Have nothing to do with that upright man, for I have had much trouble this day in a dream because of him.

And Manoah said to his wife, Death will certainly be our fate, for it is a god whom we have seen. But his wife said to him, If the Lord was purposing our death, he would not have taken our burned offering and our meal offering, or have given us such orders about the child.

The queen, because of the words of the king and his lords, came into the house of the feast: the queen made answer and said, O King, have life for ever; do not be troubled by your thoughts or let the colour go from your face: There is a man in your kingdom in whom is the spirit of the holy gods; and in the days of your father, light and reason like the wisdom of the gods were seen in him: and King Nebuchadnezzar, your father, made him master of the wonder-workers, and the users of secret arts, and the Chaldaeans, and the readers of signs; Because a most special spirit, and knowledge and reason and the power of reading dreams and unfolding dark sayings and answering hard questions, were seen to be in him, even in Daniel (named Belteshazzar by the king): now let Daniel be sent for, and he will make clear the sense of the writing.

A foolish son is the destruction of his father; and the bitter arguments of a wife are like drops of rain falling without end.

It is better to be living in a waste land, than with a bitter-tongued and angry woman.

It is better to be living in an angle of the house-top, than with a bitter-tongued woman in a wide house.

And there came to them the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the evening wind: and the man and his wife went to a secret place among the trees of the garden, away from the eyes of the Lord God. And the voice of the Lord God came to the man, saying, Where are you? And he said, Hearing your voice in the garden I was full of fear, because I was without clothing: and I kept myself from your eyes.read more.
And he said, Who gave you the knowledge that you were without clothing? Have you taken of the fruit of the tree which I said you were not to take? And the man said, The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me the fruit of the tree and I took it.

He had seven hundred wives, daughters of kings, and three hundred other wives; and through his wives his heart was turned away. For it came about that when Solomon was old, his heart was turned away to other gods by his wives; and his heart was no longer true to the Lord his God as the heart of his father David had been.

And Ahab said to Elijah, Have you come face to face with me, O my hater? And he said, I have come to you because you have given yourself up to do evil in the eyes of the Lord. See, I will send evil on you and put an end to you completely, cutting off from Ahab every male child, him who is shut up and him who goes free in Israel; And I will make your family like the family of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, and like the family of Baasha, the son of Ahijah, because you have made me angry, and have made Israel do evil.read more.
And of Jezebel the Lord said, Jezebel will become food for dogs in the heritage of Jezreel. Any man of the family of Ahab who comes to his death in the town will become food for the dogs; and he who comes to his death in the open country will be food for the birds of the air. (There was no one like Ahab, who gave himself up to do evil in the eyes of the Lord, moved to it by Jezebel his wife. He did a very disgusting thing in going after false gods, doing all the things the Amorites did, whom the Lord sent out before the children of Israel.)

And his wife said to him, Are you still keeping your righteousness? Say a curse against God, and put an end to yourself.

Truly, as a wife is false to her husband, so have you been false to me, O Israel, says the Lord.

Now when I went past you, looking at you, I saw that your time was the time of love; and I put my skirts over you, covering your unclothed body: and I gave you my oath and made an agreement with you, says the Lord, and you became mine.

For as a young man takes a virgin for his wife, so will your maker be married to you: and as a husband has joy in his bride, so will the Lord your God be glad over you.

Go and say in the ears of Jerusalem, The Lord says, I still keep the memory of your kind heart when you were young, and your love when you became my bride; how you went after me in the waste of sand, in an unplanted land.

The untrue wife who takes strange lovers in place of her husband!

The start of the word of the Lord by Hosea: And the Lord said to Hosea, Go, take for yourself a wife of loose ways, and children of the same, for the land has been untrue to the Lord.

Take up the cause against your mother, take it up, for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband; let her put away her loose ways from her face, and her false ways from between her breasts;

And I saw the holy town, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, like a bride made beautiful for her husband.

Husbands, have love for your wives, even as Christ had love for the church, and gave himself for it; So that he might make it holy, having made it clean with the washing of water by the word, And might take it for himself, a church full of glory, not having one mark or fold or any such thing; but that it might be holy and complete.

Let us be glad with delight, and let us give glory to him: because the time is come for the Lamb to be married, and his wife has made herself ready.