44 Bible Verses about Singleness

And let the girl's father say to the responsible men, I gave my daughter to this man for his wife, but he has no love for her;

And Moses was happy to go on living with the man; and he gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses.

If a woman, being young and under the authority of her father, takes an oath to the Lord or gives an undertaking; If her father, hearing of her oath or the undertaking she has given, says nothing to her, then all her oaths and every undertaking she has given will have force. But if her father, hearing of it, makes her take back her word, then the oaths or the undertakings she has given will have no force; and she will have forgiveness from the Lord, because her oath was broken by her father.

And Caleb said, I will give Achsah, my daughter, as wife to the man who overcomes Kiriath-sepher and takes it. And Othniel, the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother, took it; so he gave him his daughter Achsah for his wife.

And Saul said to David, Here is my oldest daughter Merab, whom I will give you for your wife: only be strong for me, fighting in the Lord's wars. For Saul said, Let it not be through me that his fate comes to him, but through the Philistines.

And for his sister, a virgin, for she is his near relation and has had no husband, he may make himself unclean.

See, here is Rebekah: take her and go, and let her be your master's son's wife, as the Lord has said.

And they said, It is not possible for us to give our sister to one who is without circumcision, for that would be a cause of shame to us: But on this condition only will we come to an agreement with you: if every male among you becomes like us and undergoes circumcision;

They are not to come near any dead person so as to become unclean: but for a father or mother or son or daughter or brother or for a sister who has no husband, they may make themselves unclean.

And Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, Go back to your mothers' houses: may the Lord be good to you as you have been good to the dead and to me: May the Lord give you rest in the houses of your husbands. Then she gave them a kiss; and they were weeping bitterly. And they said to her, No, but we will go back with you to your people.read more.
But Naomi said, Go back, my daughters; why will you come with me? Have I more sons in my body, to become your husbands? Go back, my daughters, and go on your way; I am so old now that I may not have another husband. If I said, I have hopes, if I had a husband tonight, and might have sons, Would you keep yourselves till they were old enough? would you keep from having husbands for them? No, my daughters; but I am very sad for you that the hand of the Lord is against me.

Then Judah said to Tamar, his daughter-in-law, Go back to your father's house and keep yourself as a widow till my son Shelah becomes a man: for he had in his mind the thought that death might come to him as it had come to his brothers. So Tamar went back to her father's house.

But if a priest's daughter is a widow, or parted from her husband, and has no child, and has come back to her father's house as when she was a girl, she may take of her father's bread; but no outside person may do so.

And his servant-wife was angry with him, and went away from him to her father's house at Beth-lehem-judah, and was there for four months.

Or if any man is newly married and has had no sex relations with his wife, let him go back to his house, so that in the event of his death in the fight, another man may not take her.

But if what he has said is true, and she is seen to be not a virgin, Then they are to make the girl come to the door of her father's house and she will be stoned to death by the men of the town, because she has done evil and put shame on Israel, by acting as a loose woman in her father's house: so you are to put away evil from among you.

Then she said to her father, Only do this for me: let me have two months to go away into the mountains with my friends, weeping for my sad fate. And he said, Go then. So he sent her away for two months; and she went with her friends to the mountains, weeping for her sad fate. And at the end of two months she went back to her father, who did with her as he had said in his oath: and she had never been touched by a man. So it became a rule in Israel,

For the Lord has made you come back to him, like a wife who has been sent away in grief of spirit; for one may not give up the wife of one's early days.

And the older daughter said to her sister, Our father is old, and there is no man to be a husband to us in the natural way: Come, let us give our father much wine, and we will go into his bed, so that we may have offspring by our father,

The children to whom you gave birth in other lands will say in your ears, The place is not wide enough for me: make room for me to have a resting-place. Then you will say in your heart, Who has given me all these children? when my children had been taken from me, and I was no longer able to have others, who took care of these? when I was by myself, where then were these?

You will not now be named, She who is given up; and your land will no longer be named, The waste land: but you will have the name, My pleasure is in her, and your land will be named, Married: for the Lord has pleasure in you, and your land will be married.

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;

For it is in the Writings, You who have never given birth, be glad; give cries of joy, you who have had no birth-pains; for the children of her who has been given up by her husband are more than those of the woman who has a husband.

Let your voice be loud in song, O woman without children; make melody and sounds of joy, you who did not give birth: for the children of her who had no husband are more than those of the married wife, says the Lord.

It is my desire that all men might be even as I am. But every man has the power of his special way of life given him by God, one in this way and one in that.

You are not to take a wife for yourself or have sons or daughters in this place.

The disciples say to him, If this is the position of a man in relation to his wife, it is better not to be married. But he said to them, Not all men are able to take in this saying, but only those to whom it is given. For there are men who, from birth, were without sex: and there are some who were made so by men: and there are others who have made themselves so for the kingdom of heaven. He who is able to take it, let him take it.

But if they have not self-control let them get married; for married life is better than the burning of desire.

But to the younger widows say No: for when their love is turned away from Christ, they have a desire to be married; And they are judged because they have been false to their first faith; And they get into the way of doing no work, going about from house to house; and not only doing no work, but talking foolishly, being over-interested in the business of others, saying things which they have no right to say.read more.
So it is my desire that the younger widows may be married and have children, controlling their families, and giving the Evil One no chance to say anything against them,

Now about virgins I have no orders from the Lord: but I give my opinion as one to whom the Lord has given mercy to be true to him. In my opinion then, because of the present trouble, it is good for a man to keep as he is. If you are married to a wife, make no attempt to get free from her: if you are free from a wife, do not take a wife.read more.
If you get married it is not a sin; and if an unmarried woman gets married it is not a sin. But those who do so will have trouble in the flesh. But I will not be hard on you.

But to the married I give orders, though not I but the Lord, that the wife may not go away from her husband

But because of the desires of the flesh, let every man have his wife, and every woman her husband. Let the husband give to the wife what is right; and let the wife do the same to the husband. The wife has not power over her body, but the husband; and in the same way the husband has not power over his body, but the wife.read more.
Do not keep back from one another what is right, but only for a short time, and by agreement, so that you may give yourselves to prayer, and come together again; so that Satan may not get the better of you through your loss of self-control. But this I say as my opinion, and not as an order of the Lord.

And he said to the people, Be ready by the third day: do not come near a woman.

And the priest, answering David, said, I have no common bread here but there is holy bread; if only the young men have kept themselves from women. And David in answer said to the priest, Certainly women have been kept from us; and as has been done before when I have gone out the arms of the young men were made holy, even though it was a common journey; how much more today will their arms be made holy.

But I say to the unmarried and to the widows, It is good for them to be even as I am.

Now, as to the things in your letter to me: It is good for a man to have nothing to do with a woman.

But it is my desire for you to be free from cares. The unmarried man gives his mind to the things of the Lord, how he may give pleasure to the Lord: But the married man gives his attention to the things of this world, how he may give pleasure to his wife. And the wife is not the same as the virgin. The virgin gives her mind to the things of the Lord, so that she may be holy in body and in spirit: but the married woman takes thought for the things of the world, how she may give pleasure to her husband.read more.
Now I say this for your profit; not to make things hard for you, but because of what is right, and so that you may be able to give all your attention to the things of the Lord.

And another said, I have been married, and so I am not able to come.

And he had four daughters, virgins, who were prophets.

Now she who is truly a widow and without family puts her hope in God, giving herself to prayer day and night.

For when they come back from the dead there are no husbands and wives, but they are as the angels in heaven.

When they come back from the dead, they do not get married, but are like the angels in heaven.

But those to whom is given the reward of the world to come, and to come back from the dead, have no wives, and are not married;

But I say this, my brothers, the time is short; and from now it will be wise for those who have wives to be as if they had them not; And for those who are in sorrow, to give no signs of it; and for those who are glad, to give no signs of joy; and for those who are getting property, to be as if they had nothing; And for those who make use of the world, not to be using it fully; for this world's way of life will quickly come to an end.