'Wives' in the Bible
And Lamech took to himself two wives. The name of the first [was] Adah, and the name of the second [was] Zillah.
Then Lamech said to his wives, "Adah and Zillah, listen to my voice; O wives of Lamech, hear my words. I have killed a man for wounding me, Even a young man for injuring me.
Then the sons of God saw the daughters of humankind, that they [were] beautiful. And they took for themselves wives from all that they chose.
And I will establish my covenant with you, and you must go into the ark--you, and your sons, and your wife, and the wives of your sons with you.
And Noah and his sons and his wife, and the wives of his sons with him, went into the ark because of the waters of the flood.
On this same day, Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and the wife of Noah and the three wives of his sons with them, went into the ark,
"Go out from the ark, you and your wife, and your sons, and your sons' wives with you.
So Noah went out, with his sons and his wife, and the wives of his sons with him.
And Abram and Nahor took wives for themselves. The name of the wife of Abram [was] Sarai, and the name of the wife of Nahor [was] Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah and Iscah.
then Esau went to Ishmael and took Mahalath, the daughter of Ishmael, son of Abraham, sister of Nebaioth, as a wife, in addition to the wives he had.
Give [me] my wives and my children for which I have served you, and let me go. For you yourself know my service that I have rendered to you."
If you mistreat my daughters, and if you take wives besides my daughters, [when] there is no man with us, see--God [is] a witness between me and you."
That night he arose and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven children and crossed the ford of the Jabbok.
"These men [are] at peace with us. Let them dwell in the land and let them trade in it. Now, behold, the land is {broad enough for them}. Let us take their daughters as wives, and let us give our daughters to them.
Esau took his wives from the daughters of Canaan: Adah, daughter of Elon, the Hittite, and Oholibamah, daughter of Anah, the daughter of Zibeon, the Hivite,
And Esau took his wives and his sons and his daughters, and all the persons of his household, and his sheep and goats, and all his cattle, and all the goods that he had acquired in the land of Canaan, and went to a land away from his brother Jacob.
These [are] the generations of Jacob. Joseph, [being] seventeen years old, was shepherding the flock with his brothers. Now he [was] a helper with the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, the wives of his father. And Joseph brought a bad report of them to his father.
And you [Joseph], are commanded [to say] this: 'Do this! Take wagons from the land of Egypt for your little ones and your wives, and bring your father and come!
So Jacob arose from Beersheba. And the sons of Israel carried their father Jacob, and their little ones and their wives in the wagons Pharaoh had sent to transport him.
All the persons belonging to Jacob who came to Egypt {who were his descendants}, not including the wives of the sons of Jacob [were] sixty-six persons in all.
And {I will become angry}, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives will be widows and your children orphans.
And Aaron said to them, "Take off the rings of gold that [are] on the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring [it] to me."
Why did Yahweh bring us into this land to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little children will become plunder; would it not be better for us to return [to] Egypt?"
And so they moved away from around the dwellings of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram; and Dathan and Abiram came out standing [at] the doorway of their tents, with their wives, sons, and little children.
Our little children, our wives, our livestock, and all of our animals {will remain} in the cities of Gilead,
But if they become wives to one of the sons from [another] tribe of the {Israelites}, their inheritance will disappear from the inheritance of our ancestors, and it will be added to the inheritance of the tribe to which they belong; the lot of our inheritance would disappear.
Only your wives and your little children and your livestock (I know that {you have much livestock}) must stay in your towns that I have given you,
And he must not {acquire many} wives for himself, so that his heart [would] turn aside; and {he must not accumulate silver and gold for himself excessively}.
"If a man has two wives, [and] the one [is] loved and the [other] one [is] disliked and the one loved and the one that is disliked have borne for him sons, if it happens [that] the firstborn son {belongs to the one that is disliked},
Your wives, your little children, and your livestock, they will remain in the land that Moses gave to you beyond the Jordan. {All of the best fighting men} will cross armed in front of your families; they will help you
And they took their daughters as wives for themselves, and they gave their daughters to their sons, and they served their gods.
Now Gideon had seventy sons, {his own offspring}, for he had many wives.
What will we do for them--for the [ones] being left over--for wives? For we have sworn by Yahweh not to give to them our daughters as wives."
So the elders of the congregation said, "What should we do for the remaining [ones] for wives, since the women from Benjamin have been destroyed?"
But we cannot give them wives from our daughters." (For the {Israelites} swore, saying, "Cursed be [anyone] who gives a wife to Benjamin.")
The descendants of Benjamin did likewise, and they took wives for each of them from the dancers whom they seized, and they went and returned to their territory, and they rebuilt the cities and they lived in them.
And {they took} for themselves Moabite wives. The name of the one [was] Orpah and the name of the other [was] Ruth. And they lived there about ten years.
He had two wives; the name of the first [was] Hannah, and the name of the second [was] Peninnah. Now Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children.
David had also taken Ahinoam from Jezreel, and both of them became his wives.
David settled with Achish in Gath, he and his men, each with his household. David [took along] his two wives Ahinoam {from Jezreel} and Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite.
When David and his men came to the city, {they saw}, and [it] was burned with fire, and their wives, their sons, and their daughters had been taken captive.
Two of David's wives had been taken captive. Ahinoam {from Jezreel} and Abigail, the wife of Nabal the Carmelite.
So David recovered all that [the] Amalekites had taken; David also rescued his two wives.
So David went up there {along with} his two wives, Ahinoam {from Jezreel} and Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite.
David took more concubines and wives from Jerusalem after he came from Hebron, and more sons and daughters [were] born to him.
Thus says Yahweh, 'Look, I [am] going to raise up evil against you from [within] your house, and I will take your women before your eyes, and I will give them to your neighbor, and he shall sleep with your wives {in broad daylight}.
Then Joab came to the king's house and said, "Today you have humiliated the faces of all of your servants who have saved your life this day, and the life of your sons and your daughters, the life of your wives, and the life of your concubines,
He had seven hundred princesses and three hundred concubines, and his wives turned his heart.
It happened at the time of Solomon's old age that his wives guided his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully with Yahweh his God as the heart of David his father [had been].
Thus he did for all of his foreign wives, offering incense and sacrificing to their gods.
A certain woman from the wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, saying, "Your servant my husband is dead. Now you know that your servant was a fearer of Yahweh, but the creditor came to take two of my children for himself as slaves.
He deported Jehoiachin to Babylon; the mother of the king, the wives of the king, his court officials, and the citizenry of the land he caused to go into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon:
And Ashhur, the father of Tekoa, had two wives: Helah and Naarah.
And in addition to them, according to their generations, according to the house of their fathers, [were] troops of the army for war: thirty-six thousand. For {they had} many wives and sons.
And Shaharaim fathered [children] in the fields of Moab after he had sent them away--Hushim and Baara, his wives.
And David took more wives in Jerusalem, and David fathered more sons and daughters.
And Rehoboam loved Maacah the daughter of Absalom more than all his wives and concubines (for he took eighteen wives and sixty concubines, and he fathered twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters).
And he dealt wisely and distributed some of his sons throughout all the land of Judah and Benjamin, through all the fortified cities, and gave abundant provisions to them and obtained many wives [for them].
But Abijah became strong, and he took to himself fourteen wives and fathered twenty-two sons and sixteen daughters.
And all Judah was standing before Yahweh, [and] also their little children, their wives, and their children.
behold, Yahweh is inflicting a great plague on your people, your children, your wives, and all your possessions,
And they came up against Judah and invaded it and carried away all the possessions found in the house of the king, and also his sons and his wives, so that no son was left to him except Jehoahaz his youngest son.
And Jehoiada took two wives for him, and he fathered sons and daughters.
Now behold, our fathers have fallen by the sword, and our sons and our daughters and our wives [are] in captivity on account of this.
And [they were] enrolled with all their little ones, their wives, their sons, and their daughters for the whole assembly because of their faithfulness. And they sanctified themselves in holiness.
{They pledged themselves} to put away their wives, and their guilt offering was a ram of the flock for their guilt.
All of these had married foreign wives, and some from among the wives bore children.
And I looked, got up, and said to the nobles, prefects, and the rest of the people, "Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your houses."
Now there was a great cry of distress of the people and of their wives [against] their Jewish brothers.
"The rest of the people, the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, the temple servants, and all who separated themselves from the peoples of the lands to [observe] the law of God--their wives, their sons, their daughters, and all who know and understand--
And their children will be dashed into pieces before their eyes; their houses will be plundered, and their wives will be raped.
And their houses will be turned over to others, [their] fields and [their] wives together. For I will stretch out my hand against the inhabitants of the land," {declares} Yahweh.
Therefore I will give their wives to others, their fields to conquerors, because from [the] smallest to [the] greatest, all of them make profit [for] unlawful gain, from prophet to priest, all of them practice deceit.
And the people [to] whom they [are] prophesying will be cast out into the streets of Jerusalem {because of} the famine and the sword. And there will be no [one who] buries them, their wives, or their sons, or their daughters. And I will pour out on them their wickedness.
{Therefore} give their children to the famine, and hand them over to [the] {power} of [the] sword, and let their wives be bereaved and widows, and let their men be killed by death, their young men struck dead [by the] sword in the battle.
Take wives and father sons and daughters, and take for your sons wives, and give your daughters to men that they may bear sons and daughters, and multiply there, and you must not be few.
because they have done a disgraceful thing in Israel, and they have committed adultery with the wives of their neighbors, and they have spoken words in my name, lies that I have not commanded them, and I [am] he who knows, and [I am] a witness,' {declares} Yahweh."
And we obeyed the voice of Jonadab, the son of Rechab, our ancestor, in all that he commanded us, not to drink wine all our days, ourselves, our wives, our sons, or our daughters,
And all your wives and your children [will be] led out to the Chaldeans, and you will not escape from their hand, but by the hand of the king of Babylon you will be seized, and this city will burn with fire."
Have you forgotten the wicked things of your ancestors, and the wicked things of the kings of Judah, and the wicked things of their wives, and your wicked things, and the wicked things of your wives, which they committed in the land of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?
Then all the men who knew that their wives [were] making smoke offerings to other gods, and all the women who stood [by], a great assembly, and all the people who lived in the land of Egypt in Pathros, answered Jeremiah, {saying},
Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, {saying}, 'You and your wives have promised with your mouths and with your hands you have fulfilled, {saying}, "We certainly will carry out our vows that we vowed, to make smoke offerings to the queen of the heavens, and to pour out to her libations." You must certainly keep your vows and you must certainly carry out your vows.'
And a widow or divorced [woman] they shall not take for themselves as wives, {but only} a virgin from the offspring of the house of Israel, or the widow who is a widow for a priest they may take.
{When he tasted the wine}, Belshazzar commanded [that they] bring [the] vessels of gold and silver that Nebuchadnezzar his {predecessor} had taken from the temple that [was] in Jerusalem, so that the king and his lords, his wives and his concubines may drink from them.
Then they brought in the vessels of gold that they took from the temple, the house of God that [was] in Jerusalem, and the king and his lords, his wives and his concubines drank from them.
And [now] you have exalted yourself against the Lord of heaven, and the vessels of his temple you have brought in before you, and you and your lords, your wives and your concubines, have been drinking wine from them, and you have praised the gods of silver, gold, bronze, iron, wood, and stone that [do] not see and [do] not hear and [do] not know, but the God {who holds your life in his hand} and all of your ways {come from him}, you have not honored.
The king then commanded, and these men were brought {who had accused Daniel}, and they threw them and their children and their wives into {the lion pit}, and they had not reached the floor of the pit {before} the lions had overpowered them and they had crushed all of their bones.
And the land shall mourn, {each clan by itself}; the clan of the house of David by itself, and their wives by themselves; the clan of the house of Nathan by itself, and their wives by themselves;
the clan of the house of Levi by itself, and their wives by themselves; the clan of the Shimeites by itself, and their wives by themselves;
and all those clans remaining, {each clan by itself}, and their wives by themselves.'"
He said to them, "Moses, with reference to your hardness of heart, permitted you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not like this.
And it happened that when our days were over, we departed [and] went on our way, [while] all [of them] accompanied us, together with [their] wives and children, as far as outside the city. And [after] falling to our knees on the beach [and] praying,
But I say this, brothers: the time is shortened, that from now on even those who have wives should be as [if they] do not have [wives],
--wives to their own husbands as to the Lord,
But as the church is subject to Christ, thus also wives [should be subject] to their husbands in everything.
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for her;
Thus also husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies. The one who loves his own wife loves himself.
Wives, be subject to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.
Husbands, love your wives and do not be embittered against them.