'Wife' in the Bible

If he came in by himself he will go out by himself; if he had a wife when he came in, then his wife will go out with him.

If his master gave him a wife, and she bore sons or daughters, the wife and the children will belong to her master, and he will go out by himself.

But if the servant should declare, 'I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free,'

If he takes another wife, he must not diminish the first one's food, her clothing, or her marital rights.

"If a man seduces a virgin who is not engaged and has sexual relations with her, he must surely endow her to be his wife.

You must not have sexual intercourse with your father's wife; she is your father's nakedness.

You must not have sexual intercourse with the daughter of your father's wife born of your father; she is your sister. You must not have intercourse with her.

You must not expose the nakedness of your father's brother; you must not approach his wife to have sexual intercourse with her. She is your aunt.

You must not have sexual intercourse with your daughter-in-law; she is your son's wife. You must not have intercourse with her.

You must not have sexual intercourse with your brother's wife; she is your brother's nakedness.

You must not have sexual intercourse with both a woman and her daughter; you must not take as wife either her son's daughter or her daughter's daughter to have intercourse with them. They are closely related to her -- it is lewdness.

You must not take a woman in marriage and then marry her sister as a rival wife while she is still alive, to have sexual intercourse with her.

You must not have sexual intercourse with the wife of your fellow citizen to become unclean with her.

If a man commits adultery with his neighbor's wife, both the adulterer and the adulteress must be put to death.

If a man has sexual intercourse with his father's wife, he has exposed his father's nakedness. Both of them must be put to death; their blood guilt is on themselves.

If a man has sexual intercourse with his brother's wife, it is indecency. He has exposed his brother's nakedness; they will be childless.

They must not take a wife defiled by prostitution, nor are they to take a wife divorced from her husband, for the priest is holy to his God.

He must take a wife who is a virgin.

He must not marry a widow, a divorced woman, or one profaned by prostitution; he may only take a virgin from his people as a wife.

"Speak to the Israelites and tell them, 'If any man's wife goes astray and behaves unfaithfully toward him,

and if jealous feelings come over him and he becomes suspicious of his wife, when she is defiled; or if jealous feelings come over him and he becomes suspicious of his wife, when she is not defiled --

then the man must bring his wife to the priest, and he must bring the offering required for her, one tenth of an ephah of barley meal; he must not pour olive oil on it or put frankincense on it, because it is a grain offering of suspicion, a grain offering for remembering, for bringing iniquity to remembrance.

"'This is the law for cases of jealousy, when a wife, while under her husband's authority, goes astray and defiles herself,

or when jealous feelings come over a man and he becomes suspicious of his wife; then he must have the woman stand before the Lord, and the priest will carry out all this law upon her.

Now the name of Amram's wife was Jochebed, daughter of Levi, who was born to Levi in Egypt. And to Amram she bore Aaron, Moses, and Miriam their sister.

These are the statutes that the Lord commanded Moses, relating to a man and his wife, and a father and his young daughter who is still living in her father's house.

And every daughter who possesses an inheritance from any of the tribes of the Israelites must become the wife of a man from any family in her father's tribe, so that every Israelite may retain the inheritance of his fathers.

You must not desire another man's wife, nor should you crave his house, his field, his male and female servants, his ox, his donkey, or anything else he owns."

Suppose your own full brother, your son, your daughter, your beloved wife, or your closest friend should seduce you secretly and encourage you to go and serve other gods that neither you nor your ancestors have previously known,

if you should see among them an attractive woman whom you wish to take as a wife,

discard the clothing she was wearing when captured, and stay in your house, lamenting for her father and mother for a full month. After that you may have sexual relations with her and become her husband and she your wife.

Suppose a man has two wives, one whom he loves more than the other, and they both bear him sons, with the firstborn being the child of the less loved wife.

In the day he divides his inheritance he must not appoint as firstborn the son of the favorite wife in place of the other wife's son who is actually the firstborn.

Rather, he must acknowledge the son of the less loved wife as firstborn and give him the double portion of all he has, for that son is the beginning of his father's procreative power -- to him should go the right of the firstborn.

They will fine him one hundred shekels of silver and give them to the young woman's father, for the man who made the accusation ruined the reputation of an Israelite virgin. She will then become his wife and he may never divorce her as long as he lives.

The man who has raped her must pay her father fifty shekels of silver and she must become his wife because he has violated her; he may never divorce her as long as he lives.

A man may not marry his father's former wife and in this way dishonor his father.

When she has left him she may go and become someone else's wife.

When a man is newly married, he need not go into the army nor be obligated in any way; he must be free to stay at home for a full year and bring joy to the wife he has married.

If brothers live together and one of them dies without having a son, the dead man's wife must not remarry someone outside the family. Instead, her late husband's brother must go to her, marry her, and perform the duty of a brother-in-law.

If two men get into a hand-to-hand fight, and the wife of one of them gets involved to help her husband against his attacker, and she reaches out her hand and grabs his genitals,

Cursed is the one who has sexual relations with his father's former wife, for he dishonors his father.' Then all the people will say, 'Amen!'

The man among you who is by nature tender and sensitive will turn against his brother, his beloved wife, and his remaining children.

Caleb said, "To the man who attacks and captures Kiriath Sepher I will give my daughter Acsah as a wife."

When Othniel son of Kenaz, Caleb's brother, captured it, Caleb gave Acsah his daughter to him as a wife.

Caleb said, "To the man who attacks and captures Kiriath Sepher I will give my daughter Acsah as a wife."

When Othniel son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother, captured it, Caleb gave him his daughter Acsah as a wife.

Now Deborah, a prophetess, wife of Lappidoth, was leading Israel at that time.

Now Sisera ran away on foot to the tent of Jael, wife of Heber the Kenite, for King Jabin of Hazor and the family of Heber the Kenite had made a peace treaty.

Then Jael wife of Heber took a tent peg in one hand and a hammer in the other. She crept up on him, drove the tent peg through his temple into the ground while he was asleep from exhaustion, and he died.

The most rewarded of women should be Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite! She should be the most rewarded of women who live in tents.

Gilead's wife also gave him sons. When his wife's sons grew up, they made Jephthah leave and said to him, "You are not going to inherit any of our father's wealth, because you are another woman's son."

There was a man named Manoah from Zorah, from the Danite tribe. His wife was infertile and childless.

So Manoah got up and followed his wife. When he met the man, he said to him, "Are you the man who spoke to my wife?" He said, "Yes."

The Lord's messenger told Manoah, "Your wife should pay attention to everything I told her.

Manoah took a young goat and a grain offering and offered them on a rock to the Lord. The Lord's messenger did an amazing thing as Manoah and his wife watched.

As the flame went up from the altar toward the sky, the Lord's messenger went up in it while Manoah and his wife watched. They fell facedown to the ground.

The Lord's messenger did not appear again to Manoah and his wife. After all this happened Manoah realized that the visitor had been the Lord's messenger.

Manoah said to his wife, "We will certainly die, because we have seen a supernatural being!"

But his wife said to him, "If the Lord wanted to kill us, he would not have accepted the burnt offering and the grain offering from us. He would not have shown us all these things, or have spoken to us like this just now."

Manoah's wife gave birth to a son and named him Samson. The child grew and the Lord empowered him.

When he got home, he told his father and mother, "A Philistine girl in Timnah has caught my eye. Now get her for my wife."

But his father and mother said to him, "Certainly you can find a wife among your relatives or among all our people! You should not have to go and get a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines." But Samson said to his father, "Get her for me, because she is the right one for me."

and keep your eyes open. When you see the daughters of Shiloh coming out to dance in the celebration, jump out from the vineyards. Each one of you, catch yourself a wife from among the daughters of Shiloh and then go home to the land of Benjamin.

When their fathers or brothers come and protest to us, we'll say to them, "Do us a favor and let them be, for we could not get each one a wife through battle. Don't worry about breaking your oath! You would only be guilty if you had voluntarily given them wives.'"

During the time of the judges there was a famine in the land of Judah. So a man from Bethlehem in Judah went to live as a resident foreigner in the region of Moab, along with his wife and two sons.

(Now the man's name was Elimelech, his wife was Naomi, and his two sons were Mahlon and Kilion. They were of the clan of Ephrath from Bethlehem in Judah.) They entered the region of Moab and settled there.

Then Boaz said, "When you acquire the field from Naomi, you must also acquire Ruth the Moabite, the wife of our deceased relative, in order to preserve his family name by raising up a descendant who will inherit his property."

I have also acquired Ruth the Moabite, the wife of Mahlon, as my wife to raise up a descendant who will inherit his property so the name of the deceased might not disappear from among his relatives and from his village. You are witnesses today."

Whenever the day came for Elkanah to sacrifice, he used to give meat portions to his wife Peninnah and to all her sons and daughters.

Her rival wife used to upset her and make her worry, for the Lord had not enabled her to have children.

They got up early the next morning and after worshiping the Lord, they returned to their home at Ramah. Elkanah had marital relations with his wife Hannah, and the Lord remembered her.

Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife saying, "May the Lord raise up for you descendants from this woman to replace the one that she dedicated to the Lord." Then they would go to their home.

His daughter-in-law, the wife of Phineas, was pregnant and close to giving birth. When she heard that the ark of God was captured and that her father-in-law and her husband were dead, she doubled over and gave birth. But her labor pains were too much for her.

The name of Saul's wife was Ahinoam, the daughter of Ahimaaz. The name of the general in command of his army was Abner son of Ner, Saul's uncle.

Saul sent messengers to David's house to guard it and to kill him in the morning. Then David's wife Michal told him, "If you do not save yourself tonight, tomorrow you will be dead!"

But one of the servants told Nabal's wife Abigail, "David sent messengers from the desert to greet our lord, but he screamed at them.

In the morning, when Nabal was sober, his wife told him about these matters. He had a stroke and was paralyzed.

When David heard that Nabal had died, he said, "Praised be the Lord who has vindicated me and avenged the insult that I suffered from Nabal! The Lord has kept his servant from doing evil, and he has repaid Nabal for his evil deeds." Then David sent word to Abigail and asked her to become his wife.

So the servants of David went to Abigail at Carmel and said to her, "David has sent us to you to bring you back to be his wife."

Then Abigail quickly went and mounted her donkey, with five of her female servants accompanying her. She followed David's messengers and became his wife.

(Now Saul had given his daughter Michal, David's wife, to Paltiel son of Laish, who was from Gallim.)

So David went up, along with his two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelite and Abigail, formerly the wife of Nabal the Carmelite.

His sixth son was Ithream, born to David's wife Eglah. These sons were all born to David in Hebron.

David sent messengers to Ish-bosheth son of Saul with this demand: "Give me my wife Michal whom I acquired for a hundred Philistine foreskins."

So David sent someone to inquire about the woman. The messenger said, "Isn't this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?"

Uriah replied to David, "The ark and Israel and Judah reside in temporary shelters, and my lord Joab and my lord's soldiers are camping in the open field. Should I go to my house to eat and drink and have marital relations with my wife? As surely as you are alive, I will not do this thing!"

When Uriah's wife heard that her husband Uriah was dead, she mourned for him.

When the time of mourning passed, David had her brought to his palace. She became his wife and she bore him a son. But what David had done upset the Lord.

Why have you shown contempt for the word of the Lord by doing evil in my sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and you have taken his wife as your own! You have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites.

So now the sword will never depart from your house. For you have despised me by taking the wife of Uriah the Hittite as your own!'

Then Nathan went to his home. The Lord struck the child that Uriah's wife had borne to David, and the child became very ill.

So David comforted his wife Bathsheba. He went to her and had marital relations with her. She gave birth to a son, and David named him Solomon. Now the Lord loved the child

His wife then took the covering and spread it over the top of the well and scattered some grain over it. No one was aware of what she had done.

He said, "Please ask King Solomon if he would give me Abishag the Shunammite as a wife, for he won't refuse you."

She said, "Allow Abishag the Shunammite to be given to your brother Adonijah as a wife."

Pharaoh liked Hadad so well he gave him his sister-in-law (Queen Tahpenes' sister) as a wife.

Jeroboam told his wife, "Disguise yourself so that people cannot recognize you are Jeroboam's wife. Then go to Shiloh; Ahijah the prophet, who told me I would rule over this nation, lives there.

Jeroboam's wife did as she was told. She went to Shiloh and visited Ahijah. Now Ahijah could not see; he had lost his eyesight in his old age.

But the Lord had told Ahijah, "Look, Jeroboam's wife is coming to find out from you what will happen to her son, for he is sick. Tell her so-and-so. When she comes, she will be in a disguise."