'Wife' in the Bible

"You are not to expose the nakedness of your daughter-in-law. She's the wife of your son. You are not to have sexual relations with her.

"You are not to have sexual relations with your brother's wife. She's the nakedness of your brother.

"You are not to marry a woman and then have sexual relations with her sister as a rival when your wife is still alive.

"You are not to have sexual relations with your neighbor's wife and thereby become ceremonially unclean with her."

"If anyone commits adultery with another man's wife, including when someone commits adultery with his neighbor's wife, both the adulterer and the adulteress are to die.

"If a man has sexual relations with his father's wife, he has exposed his father's nakedness, so both of them are to be put to death. Their guilt will remain their responsibility.

"If a man takes a wife along with her mother, that's wickedness. They are to be burned with fire that is, both him and them, so that there will be no wickedness in your midst.

"If a man has sexual relations with his uncle's wife, he has exposed his uncle's nakedness. They are to bear responsibility for punishment of their sin. They'll die childless.

"If a man takes his brother's wife, it's immoral. He has exposed his brother's nakedness. They'll be childless."

He is not to marry a widow or one who has been divorced, has been defiled, or has been a prostitute. Instead, he is to take a virgin from among his people as his wife.

"Instruct the Israelis what to do if a man's wife turns astray so that she unfaithfully acts against him,

If an attitude of jealousy overcomes him so that he becomes jealous at his wife when she is defiled, or if an attitude of jealousy overcomes him and he becomes jealous of his wife even though she isn't defiled,

then that man is to bring his wife to the priest along with an offering for her consisting of a tenth of an ephah of barley flour. He is not to pour oil or set frankincense over it, because it's to be a jealousy offering, a memorial offering that will serve as a reminder of iniquity.

When a man becomes under the control of an attitude of jealousy regarding his wife, he is to present her to the Lord, and the priest is to apply this entire statute to her.

The husband will be free from guilt, but the wife is to bear the punishment of her iniquity."

Now Kohath had a son named Amram. Amram's wife was Levi's daughter Jochebed, who was born to Levi in Egypt. She gave birth to Aaron, Moses, and their sister Miriam.

These are the statutes that the LORD commanded Moses concerning a man and his wife and concerning a father and his young daughter while she still lives in her father's house.

""You are not to desire your neighbor's wife nor crave your neighbor's house, his fields, his male and female servants, his ox, his donkey, nor anything that pertains to your neighbor.'"

"Your own blood brother, your son, your daughter, your beloved wife, or your friend who is like your soul mate may entice you quietly. He may tell you, "Let's go and serve other gods,' (whom neither you nor your ancestors have known

If you see among the prisoners a beautiful woman and you desire her, then you may take her as your wife.

Remove her prisoner's clothing and let her remain for a month in your house, mourning her parents. After that, you may become her husband and she is to become your wife.

"If a man has two wives where one is loved but the other is unloved, and both of them bear him sons, but the firstborn is the son of the unloved wife,

then when he bequeaths his possessions to his sons, he must not give preference to the firstborn of the beloved wife over the firstborn of the unloved wife.

Instead, he must acknowledge the firstborn of the unloved wife by giving him double of everything he owns, because he is really the first fruit of his father's strength. The right of the firstborn belongs to him."

"Suppose a man marries a wife, but after having sexual relations with her, he despises her,

The father of the young lady is to then say to the elders: "I have given my daughter to this man as a wife, but he despises her.

fine him 100 shekels of silver, and then give them to the young lady's father, because he defamed a virgin of Israel. She is to remain his wife and he can't divorce her as long as he lives.

"A man must not marry his father's wife, so that he will not dishonor his father's memory."

If she goes out from his house, becomes the wife of another man,

"When a man is newly married, he must not be sent out to war or have a related duty placed on him. Let him stay home for one year and be happy with his wife whom he has married.

"When two brothers are living together and one of them dies without leaving a son, his widow must not be married outside the family to a foreigner. Instead, the brother-in-law must go to her, take her as his wife, and by doing so perform the duty of a brother-in-law.

"If two men are fighting together, and the wife of one comes to rescue her husband from the grasp of his assailant, and she reaches out and seizes his genitals,

"Cursed is the one who has sexual relations with his father's wife, because he has disgraced his father.' "Then all the people are to respond by saying, "Amen!'

Even the compassionate man among you the very sensitive one will look with evil in his eyes toward his brother, his beloved wife, and his surviving sons, whom he spared.

Othniel, the son of Caleb's brother Kenaz, captured it, so Caleb gave him his daughter Achsah as his wife.

Deborah, a woman, prophet, and wife of Lappidoth, was herself judging Israel during that time.

Meanwhile, Sisera had escaped on foot to a tent belonging to Jael, wife of Heber the Kenite, since there was peace between Jabin king of Hazor and the household of Heber the Kenite.

But Heber's wife Jael grabbed a tent peg in one hand and a hammer in the other, crept up to him quietly, and drove the tent peg right through his temple into the ground below after he had fallen sound asleep from exhaustion. That's how he died.

"Blessed above all women is Jael, wife of Heber the Kenite; most blessed is she among women who live in tents!

Gilead's wife bore two sons through him, but when his wife's sons grew up, they expelled Jephthah and declared to him, "You won't have an inheritance in this house, since you're the son of a different woman."

There was one man from Zorah, from the family of the descendants of Dan, whose name was Manoah. Since his wife was infertile, she hadn't borne children.

So Manoah got up quickly and followed his wife, and when he came to the man he told him, "Are you the man who spoke to my wife?" He replied, "I am."

The angel of the LORD replied to Manoah, "Just have your wife be careful to carry out everything that I told her.

So Manoah prepared a young goat and a grain offering and offered it on a boulder to the LORD, who kept on performing miracles while Manoah and his wife watched continually.

When the burnt offering was engulfed in flames that sprang up from the altar toward heaven, the angel of the LORD ascended in the flame that came from the altar. When Manoah and his wife observed this, they collapsed on their faces to the ground.

The angel of the LORD did not appear again to Manoah or to his wife, and then Manoah knew confidently that the visitor had been the angel of the LORD.

Then Manoah told his wife, "We're going to die for sure, because we've seen God!"

But his wife replied to him, "If the LORD had intended to kill us, he wouldn't have accepted a burnt offering and a grain offering from us, he wouldn't have shown us all these things, and he wouldn't have permitted us to hear things like this, now would he?"

Then he returned and told his father and mother, "In Timnah I saw a woman of Philistine origin." He ordered them, "Get her for me as a wife. Now!"

His father and mother asked him, "Isn't there a woman suitable among the daughters of your relatives or among all of our people, since you're going to get your wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?"

The next day, they told Samson's wife, "Coax your husband to explain the riddle or we'll set fire to your father's house with you in it! You've invited us here to make us paupers, haven't you?"

So Samson's wife cried in front of him and accused him, "You only hate me. You don't love me. You've told a riddle to my relatives, but you haven't told the solution to me." Samson responded, "Look, I haven't told my parents, either. Why should I tell you?"

and Samson's wife went to the best man at his wedding.

A while later during the wheat harvest, Samson visited his wife, bringing along a young goat, and told his father-in-law, "I'm going into my wife's room." But her father wouldn't give permission for him to go.

Then the Philistines demanded, "Who did this?" Someone said, "Samson, son-in-law of the Timnite, because his father-in-law took Samson's wife and gave her to the best man at Samson's wedding." In retaliation, the Philistines came up and burned her and her father to death.

But we can't give them wives from our own daughters, since we've taken this vow: "May the LORD curse anyone who gives his daughter as a wife to the tribe of Benjamin!'"

Watch when the unmarried women from Shiloh come out to participate in the dances. Then come out of the vineyards and each of you grab a wife from the unmarried women from Shiloh. Then go back home to the territory of Benjamin.

If their fathers or brothers come complaining to us, we'll tell them "Be generous! Give them to us voluntarily, because we didn't take anyone to be a wife for the men of the tribe of Benjamin as a result of the battle. And you haven't incurred guilt by giving your daughters to them.'"

Now there came a time of famine while judges were ruling in the land of Israel. A man from Bethlehem of Judah, his wife, and his two sons left to live in the country of Moab.

Boaz continued, "On the very day you buy the field from Naomi, you're also "buying" Ruth the Moabite woman, the wife of her dead husband, so the family name may be continued as an inheritance."

along with Mahlon's wife Ruth the Moabite woman. I will marry her to continue the family name as an inheritance, so that the name of the deceased does not disappear from among his relatives, nor from the public record. You are all witnesses today!"

So Boaz took Ruth to be his wife, and when he had marital relations with her, the LORD made her conceive, and she bore a son.

On the day when Elkanah offered sacrifices, he would give portions to his wife Peninnah and to all her sons and daughters,

They got up early the next morning and worshipped in the LORD's presence, and then they returned and came to their house at Ramah. Elkanah had marital relations with his wife Hannah, and the LORD remembered her.

Then Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife and say, "May the LORD give you descendants from this woman in place of the one she dedicated to the LORD." Then they would return to their home.

Eli's daughter-in-law, the wife of Phineas, was pregnant and ready to give birth. When she heard the report about the capture of the Ark of God and that her father-in-law and husband were dead, she crouched down and gave birth, because her labor pains suddenly began.

Saul's wife was Ahinoam, daughter of Ahimaaz, while the commander of his army was Saul's uncle Ner's son Abner.

Saul told David, "Here is my older daughter Merab. I'll give her to you as a wife. Just be an excellent soldier for me and fight the LORD's battles." Now Saul told himself, "I won't harm him myself. Instead, I'll let the Philistines harm him."

And when the time came to give Saul's daughter Merab to David, she was given as a wife to Adriel of Meholah.

David got up, went out with his men, and struck down 200 Philistine men. David brought their foreskins and gave them all to the king so he could become the king's son-in-law. So Saul gave him his daughter Michal as a wife.

Saul sent messengers to David's house to watch him so they could kill him in the morning. David's wife, Michal, told him, "If you don't escape with your life tonight, tomorrow you'll be put to death."

Now, one of the young men told Nabal's wife Abigail: "Look, David sent messengers from the wilderness to greet our lord, but he screamed insults at them.

After Nabal became sober the next morning, his wife told him all that had happened. Nabal's heart failed and he became paralyzed.

Then David sent word to Abigail that he would take her as his wife. David's servants went to Abigail at Carmel and told her, "David sent us to you to take you to him as his wife."

Then Abigail quickly got up and got on a donkey, with five young women walking behind her. She followed David's messengers, and she became his wife.

Meanwhile, Saul had given his daughter Michal, David's wife, to Laish's son Palti from Gallim.

David stayed with Achish in Gath along with his men, each of whom was with his household. David had his two wives, Ahinoam from Jezreel and Abigail, who had been the wife of Nabal of Carmel.

David's two wives, Ahinoam from Jezreel and Abigail, Nabal's former wife, had been captured.

At this point, all the wicked and worthless men of the group who had gone with David answered, "Because they didn't go with us, we won't give them any of the spoil that we recovered, except that each person may take his wife and his children and go."

and his sixth was Ithream by David's wife Eglah. They were all born to David in Hebron.

Then David sent a delegation to Saul's son Ish-bosheth to say, "Give me my wife Michal, to whom I was engaged with a dowry of 100 Philistine foreskins."

David sent word to inquire about her, and someone told him, "This is Eliam's daughter Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite, isn't it?"

Uriah replied, "The ark, along with Israel and Judah, are encamped in tents, while my commanding officer Joab and my master's staff members are camping out in the open fields. Should I go home, eat, drink, and have sex with my wife? Not on your life! I won't do something like this, will I?"

When Uriah's wife heard about the death of her husband Uriah, she went into mourning for the head of her household.

When her mourning period was completed, David sent for her, brought her to his palace, and she became his wife. Later on, she bore him a son.

""Why did you despise what the LORD has promised by doing what is detestable in his sight? ""You struck down Uriah the Hittite with a battle sword. ""You took his wife to be your own. ""You killed him with the sword of the Ammonite army.

""Therefore the sword will never leave your household, because you have despised me by taking the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.'

After this, the LORD afflicted the child that Uriah's wife had born to David, and the child became very ill. David begged God on behalf of the youngster. He fasted, went inside, and spent the night lying on the ground.

Then David consoled his wife Bathsheba. He went in and had sex with her, and she bore a son whom he named Solomon. The LORD loved him,

The man's wife grabbed a sheet, covered the mouth of the well with it, and spread some dried grain over it. As a result, nobody could tell it was a hiding place.

Then he asked her, "Please talk to King Solomon for me, since he won't refuse you. Ask him to give me Abishag the Shunammite as a wife."

So she asked him, "Give Abishag the Shunammite to your brother Adonijah as a wife."

Ben-abinadab supervised the Dor heights (Solomon's daughter Taphath was his wife);

Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, had attacked and captured Gezer, burned it down, killed the Canaanites who lived in the city, and then gave it as a dowry for his daughter, Solomon's wife.

Hadad won the affection of the Pharaoh, who gave permission for Hadad to marry the sister of his own wife, Queen Tahpenes.

so Jeroboam suggested to his wife, "Get up, disguise yourself so that no one will know that you're Jeroboam's wife, and go to Shiloh where the prophet Ahijah lives. He's the one who told me that I would be king over this people.

So that's what Jeroboam's wife did. She got up, went to Shiloh, and found Ahijah's home. Ahijah was blind, because his eyes could not focus due to his age.

Meanwhile, the LORD had spoken to Ahijah, "Be on your guard! Jeroboam's wife is coming to ask you about her son, because he is ill. You're to say such and such to her. When she arrives, she will pretend to be someone else!"

"Come in, wife of Jeroboam. What is this pretension at being someone else? I have some harsh news. Go tell Jeroboam: "I raised you up from among the people. "I made you Commander-in-Chief over my people Israel.

Then Jeroboam's wife got up and left for Tirzah. As soon as she set foot over the threshold of the house, the child died.