61 Bible Verses about Marriage, Restrictions Concerning

Judah met a young Canaanite woman there whose father was named Shua. He married her.

Pharaoh named Joseph, Zaphenath-paneah. He gave him Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera, priest of On, as his wife. And Joseph went forth over the land of Egypt.

Moses was content to live with the man. He gave Moses his daughter Zipporah.

A man, whose mother was Shelomith (daughter of Dibri, from the tribe of Dan in Israel) and whose father was from Egypt, got into a quarrel with an Israelite in the camp.

They took two women of Moab as their wives. One was Orpah and the other Ruth. They made their home there for about ten years.

Sheshan had no sons, only daughters. He had an Egyptian servant named Jarha. Sheshan gave his daughter in marriage to his servant Jarha, and she bore him Attai.

Among the sons of the priests who were married to strange women were these: of the sons of Jeshua, the son of Jozadak and his brothers, Maaseiah and Eliezer and Jarib and Gedaliah. They gave their word that they would put away their wives; and for their sin, they gave an offering of a male sheep of the flock. Of the sons of Immer, Hanani and Zebadiah.read more.
Of the sons of Harim, Maaseiah and Elijah and Shemaiah and Jehiel and Uzziah. Of the sons of Pashhur, Elioenai, Maaseiah, Ishmael, Nethanel, Jozabad, and Elasah. And of the Levites, Jozabad, and Shimei, and Kelaiah that is Kelita, Pethahiah, Judah, and Eliezer. Of the music-makers, Eliashib; and of the doorkeepers, Shallum and Telem and Uri. Of Israel, the sons of Parosh, Ramiah and Izziah and Malchijah and Mijamin and Eleazar and Malchijah and Benaiah. Of the sons of Elam, Mattaniah, Zechariah, and Jehiel and Abdi and Jeremoth and Elijah. And of the sons of Zattu, Elioenai, Eliashib, Mattaniah, and Jeremoth and Zabad and Aziza. Of the sons of Bebai, Jehohanan, Hananiah, Zabbai, Athlai. Of the sons of Bani, Meshullam, Malluch, and Adaiah, Jashub and Sheal, Jeremoth. And of the sons of Pahath-moab, Adna and Chelal, Benaiah, Maaseiah, Mattaniah, Bezalel and Binnui and Manasseh. And of the sons of Harim, Eliezer, Isshijah, Malchijah, Shemaiah, Shimeon, Benjamin, Malluch, Shemariah. Of the sons of Hashum, Mattenai, Mattattah, Zabad, Eliphelet, Jeremai, Manasseh, Shimei. Of the sons of Bani, Maadai, Amram, and Uel, Benaiah, Bedeiah, Cheluhi, Vaniah, Meremoth, Eliashib, Mattaniah, Mattenai, and Jaasu, And Bani and Binnui, Shimei; And Shelemiah and Nathan and Adaiah, Machnadebai, Shashai, Sharai, Azarel and Shelemiah, Shemariah, Shallum, Amariah, Joseph. Of the sons of Nebo, Jeiel, Mattithiah, Zabad, Zebina, Iddo, and Joel, Benaiah. All these had taken strange wives; and some of them had wives by whom they had offspring.

You might take some of his daughters for your sons, and his daughters might commit spiritual immorality (fornication) with their gods and cause your sons also to commit spiritual immorality with their gods.

Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons. They will lead your young people away from me to serve other gods. So the anger of Jehovah will be kindled against you and will destroy you suddenly.

If you are disloyal and join with the nations that are still left among you and intermarry with them, Jehovah your God will no longer drive these nations out as you advance. Rather, they will be as dangerous for you as a trap or a pit and as painful as a whip on your back or thorns in your eyes. This will last until none of you are left in this good land that Jehovah your God gave you.

The people of Israel settled down among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. They intermarried with them and worshiped their gods.

Solomon loved many women. They were of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites. Jehovah warned the children of Israel about these nations. He said: You are not to take wives from them and they are not to take wives from you. They will certainly turn your hearts to go after their gods. Solomon loved his wives anyway. He had seven hundred wives, daughters of kings, and three hundred other wives. His wives influenced his heart to turn away.read more.
When Solomon was old he allowed his heart to be turned away to other gods by his wives. His heart was no longer true to Jehovah his God as the heart of his father David had been. Solomon went after Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Zidonians, and Milcom, the disgusting god of the Ammonites. Solomon did evil in the eyes of Jehovah. He did not walk in Jehovah's ways with all his heart as David his father did. Then Solomon put up a high place for Chemosh, the disgusting god of Moab, in the mountain near Jerusalem. And for Molech, the disgusting god worshipped by the children of Ammon. He did likewise for all his strange wives, who made offerings with burning of perfumes to their gods.

It was as if he copied the evil ways of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat. He took as his wife Jezebel, daughter of Ethbaal, king of Zidon, and became a servant and worshipper of Baal.

The people of Judah have done wrong. They deal treacherously and committed an abomination in Israel and in Jerusalem. Judah has profaned the holiness of Jehovah by marrying the daughter of a foreign god.

After these things were done, the captains came to me and said: The people of Israel and the priests and Levites have not kept themselves separate from the people of the lands. They have taken part in the disgusting ways of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites. They have taken their daughters as wives for themselves and for their sons. They have mingled the holy race with peoples around them. In fact the leaders and officials were first to do this evil.

While Ezra was saying his prayer and his confession of wrongdoing he wept and fell down before the house of God. A very great number of men and women and children out of Israel came together around him, for the people were weeping bitterly. Shecaniah, the son of Jehiel, one of the sons of Elam, answering, said to Ezra, We have done evil against our God, and have taken as our wives strange women of the peoples of the land. But still there is hope for Israel in this question.

I saw the Jews who were married to women of Ashdod and Ammon and Moab: Their children were talking half in the language of Ashdod; they had no knowledge of the Jews' language, but made use of the language of the two peoples. I took up the cause against them, cursing them and giving blows to some of them and pulling out their hair. I made them take an oath by God, saying: You are not to give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons or for yourselves.read more.
Was it not in these things that Solomon, king of Israel, did wrong? Among a number of nations there was no king like him. He was dear to his God, and God made him king over all Israel. But even he was made to do evil by strange women. Are we then without protest to let you do all this great evil, sinning against our God by taking strange women for your wives?

That way we would not give our daughters to the peoples of the lands, or take their daughters for our sons;

I want you to swear by Jehovah God of heaven and earth that you will not get my son a wife from the daughters of the Canaanites among whom I am living. Instead, you will go to the land of my relatives and get a wife for my son Isaac.

When Esau was forty he married Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite. These two women brought a lot of grief to his parents, Isaac and Rebekah.

Rebekah said to Isaac: I cannot stand Hittite women! I would rather die than see Jacob marry one of them.

Isaac called Jacob, blessed him, and told him: Do not marry a Canaanite. Go to Mesopotamia instead, to the home of your grandfather Bethuel. Marry one of the young women there, one of your uncle Laban's daughters.

His father and mother asked him: Why do you go to those heathen Philistines to get a wife? Can you not find someone in our own family or among all our people? Samson told his father: I like her! She is the one I want. Get her for me.

Boaz took Ruth to be his wife. He slept with her and Jehovah enabled her to conceive and she gave birth to a son.

Let us make an agreement with our God to put away all the wives and all their children, if it seems right to my lord and to those who go in fear of the words of our God. Let it be done in keeping with the law.

Ezra the priest got to his feet and said to them: You have done wrong and taken strange women for your wives, thus increasing the sin of Israel. Give praise to Jehovah, the God of your fathers, and do his will. Separate yourselves from the peoples of the land and from the strange women. Then all the people, answered with a loud voice: As you have said, so it is right for us to do.read more.
The number of people is great, and it is a time of much rain; it is not possible for us to go on waiting outside. This is not a thing that may be done in one day or even two: for our sin in this business is great. So now let our rulers be representatives for all the people. Let all those in our towns who are married to strange women come at fixed times, and with them the responsible men and the judges of every town, till the burning wrath of our God is turned away from us, and this has been done. Only Jonathan, the son of Asahel, and Jahzeiah, the son of Tikvah, were against this, Meshullam and Shabbethai the Levite supporting them. So those who had come back did so. Ezra the priest, with certain heads of families, by their fathers' families, all of them by their names, were marked out. On the first day of the tenth month they took their places to go into the question with care. they reached the end of all the men who were married to strange women by the first day of the first month.

The wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives. If her husband dies, she is free to marry whom she wishes, only in the Lord.

Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers: for what fellowship does righteousness have with lawlessness? Or what communion does light have with darkness?

To the others, I speak and not the Lord. If any brother has an unbelieving wife and she is willing to live with him he should not divorce her. And the woman who has an unbelieving husband, and he is willing to live with her, she should not divorce him. For the wife sanctifies the unbelieving husband, and the husband sanctifies the unbelieving wife. Otherwise your children would be unclean. But now they are holy.read more.
If the unbelieving leave, let him leave. A brother or a sister is not under bondage in such cases for God has called us to peace. Wife how do you know that you will save your husband? Husband how do you know whether you will save your wife?

Do not have sex with any of your close relatives, especially your own mother. This would disgrace your father. Do not disgrace him by having sex with any of his other wives.read more.
Never have sexual intercourse with your stepsister, whether she is your father's daughter or your mother's daughter. It makes no difference whether or not she was born in your house. Do not have sexual intercourse with your granddaughter, whether she is your son's daughter or your daughter's daughter, because she is related to you. Never have sexual intercourse with a daughter of your father and his wife. She is your own sister. Do not have sexual intercourse with your father's sister. She is your paternal aunt. Do not have sexual intercourse with your mother's sister. She is your maternal aunt. Never have sexual intercourse with the wife of your father's brother. She, too, is your aunt. Never have sexual intercourse with your daughter-in-law. She is your son's wife. Never have sexual intercourse with her. Do not have sexual intercourse with your sister-in-law. She is your brother's wife. Do not have sexual intercourse with a woman and her daughter or a woman and her granddaughter. They are related. Doing this is perverted. While your wife is living, never marry her sister as a rival wife and have sexual intercourse with her.

A man who has intercourse with one of his father's wives disgraces his father. Both he and the woman must be put to death. They are responsible for their own death. If a man has sexual intercourse with his daughter-in-law, both of them must be put to death. They have done a disgusting thing and deserve to die.

A man must not have sexual intercourse with his father's wife. This would violate his father.

Some of them sleep with their father's wife. Some force women to have intercourse with them during their period. Some commit adultery, and others seduce their daughters-in-law or their half sisters.

Herod locked John in prison to please Herodias, his brother Philip's wife. For John had said to him: It is not lawful for you to have her.

For Herod captured John and locked him in prison for the sake of Herodias his wife. She was his brother Philip's wife before he married her. John said to Herod: It is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife.

Besides, she is my sister. She is my father's daughter, but not my mother's. She is also my wife.

How could I ever hold up my head in public again? And you, you would be completely disgraced in Israel. Please speak to the king. I am sure he will give me to you.

When brothers live together and one of them dies without a son the wife of the deceased shall not marry outside the family to a strange man. Her husband's brother shall marry her and perform the duty of a husband's brother to her. The firstborn son she bears will assume the name of the dead brother. That way his name will not be blotted out from Israel. If the man does not desire to take his brother's wife, his brother's wife shall go up to the gate to the elders and say: My husband's brother refuses to establish a name for his brother in Israel. He is not willing to perform the duty of a husband's brother to me.read more.
The elders of his city must summon him and speak to him. If he persists and says: I do not desire to take her, his brother's wife shall must to him in the sight of the elders. She will pull his sandal off his foot and spit in his face. Then she will declare: It is done to the man who does not build up his brother's house. His name in Israel will be: 'The house of him whose sandal is removed.'

In addition, Ruth the Moabite, Mahlon's widow, becomes my wife. This will keep the property in the dead man's family, and his family line will continue among his people in his hometown. Today you are witnesses to this.

Then Judah said to Er's brother Onan: Go sleep with your brother's widow. Fulfill your obligation to her as her husband's brother. That way your brother may have descendants.

You must go back, my daughters, Naomi replied. Why do you want to come with me? Do you think I could have sons again for you to marry? Return home, my daughters. I am too old to get married again. Even if I thought there was still hope, and got married and had sons, would you wait for them to grow up? Would this keep you from marrying someone else? No, my daughters, you know that is not possible. Jehovah has turned against me. I feel sorry for you.

He said: Who are you? She answered: I am your servant Ruth. Spread your garment over me, for you are my kinsman.

Then Boaz said: On the day when you take this field, you will have to take with it Ruth, the Moabitess, the wife of the dead, so that you may keep the name of the dead living in his heritage.

Teacher, Moses said if a man dies having no children, his brother should marry his wife, and bring up seed for his brother. There were seven brothers. The first married and died, and having no children, left his wife to his brother. The same happened to the second, right on through the seventh.

Teacher, Moses wrote that if a man's brother die, and leave a wife behind him, and leave no child, that his brother should take his wife, and raise up seed for his brother. There were seven brothers the first took a wife, and dying left no seed. The second took her, and died, leaving no seed behind him. The third also died without leaving a seed.read more.
The seven left no seed. The woman also died.

They asked him: Teacher, Moses wrote if a man's brother dies and he is childless, his brother should take the wife, and raise up seed for his brother. There were seven brothers. The first took a wife, and died childless. The same for the second.read more.
The third married her. The remaining of the seven also married her, left no children and died.

Onan knew that the children would not belong to him. So when he had intercourse with his brother's widow, he let the semen spill on the ground, assuring that there would be no children for his brother.

The near relative said: I am not able to redeem it for myself, for fear of damaging the heritage I have. You may do it in my place, for I am not able to do it myself.

When a man seduces a virgin who is not engaged to anyone and has sexual intercourse with her, he must pay the bride price and marry her.

Suppose a man finds a woman who is a virgin, who is not engaged, and seizes her and lies with her and they are discovered. The man who has sex with her must give to the girl's father fifty shekels of silver, and she will become his wife because he has violated her. He may not divorce her all his days.

Law binds the married woman to her husband while he lives. But if the husband dies, she is discharged from the law of the husband. So then if, while the husband lives, she is joined to another man, she will be called an adulteress. If the husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is no adulteress, though she is joined to another man.

May Jehovah make it possible for each of you to marry again and have a home. Then Naomi kissed them good-bye and they cried.

I say therefore to the unmarried and widows, it is good for them if they stay unmarried like me. But if they cannot control themselves, let them marry. It is better to marry than to be inflamed [with lust].

I desire therefore that the younger widows marry, bear children, rule the household, and give no occasion to the adversary for reviling.

A man who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery. The man who marries a divorced woman commits adultery. [Jesus continued to tell illustrations.]

I tell you, whoever divorces his wife, except for fornication, and marries another, commits adultery. And he who marries her when she is divorced, commits adultery.

He said: He who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her. If she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.

To the married I command, yet not I, but the Lord commands do not let the wife depart from her husband. If she leaves, let her remain unmarried or become reconciled to her husband. A husband should not divorce his wife.

When a man marries a woman and later decides he does not love her because he found something he does not like about her he writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out from his house. She leaves his house and becomes another man's wife. If the latter husband turns against 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 husband dies who took her to be his wife,read more.
her former husband who sent her away is not allowed to take her again to be his wife. She has been defiled. That is an abomination before Jehovah, and you shall not bring sin on the land Jehovah your God gives you as an inheritance.

I say to you that everyone divorcing his wife, except for the reason of fornication, makes her liable to commit adultery. And if she marries again, the man she marries also commits adultery.

If the unbelieving leave, let him leave. A brother or a sister is not under bondage in such cases for God has called us to peace.