For you know how we were exhorting and encouraging and imploring each one of you just as a father does [in dealing with] his own children, [guiding you]

I have

Abraham said to his servant [Eliezer of Damascus], the oldest of his household, who had charge over all that Abraham owned, “Please, put your hand under my thigh [as is customary for affirming a solemn oath],

Hear, O daughter, consider and incline your ear [to my instruction]:
Forget your people and your father’s house;

“For your husband is your Maker,
The Lord of hosts is His name;
And your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel,
Who is called the God of the whole earth.

It will no longer be said of you [Judah], “Azubah (Abandoned),”
Nor will it any longer be said of your land, “Shemamah (Desolate)”;
But you will be called, “Hephzibah (My Delight is in Her),”
And your land, “Married”;
For the Lord delights in you,
And to Him your land will be married [owned and protected by the Lord].

“And I will betroth you (Israel) to Me forever;
Yes, I will betroth you to Me in righteousness and in justice,
In lovingkindness and loyalty, and in compassion.

He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands by and listens to him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. So this pleasure and joy of mine is now complete.

Therefore, my fellow believers, you too died to the Law through the [crucified] body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God.

For even if you were to have ten thousand teachers [to guide you] in Christ, yet you would not have many fathers [who led you to Christ and assumed responsibility for you], for I became your father in Christ Jesus through the good news [of salvation].

I may

so that [in turn] He might present the church to Himself in glorious splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy [set apart for God] and blameless.

We proclaim Him, warning and instructing everyone in all wisdom [that is, with comprehensive insight into the word and purposes of God], so that we may present every person complete in Christ [mature, fully trained, and perfect in Him—the Anointed].

A chaste

He shall take a wife in her virginity.

And they shall not marry a widow or a divorced woman; but they shall marry virgins of the descendants of the house of Israel, or a widow who was previously married to a priest.

General references

He shall take a wife in her virginity.

You adulterous wife, who welcomes and receives strangers instead of her husband!

for no one can lay a foundation other than the one which is [already] laid, which is Jesus Christ.