17 Bible Verses About Wives

Genesis 2:24

“That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.”

Reflection: The verse closes the account of the woman’s making. God says, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him” (Genesis 2:18), no suitable helper is found among the animals, and the man greets the woman with “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh” (2:23). Jesus quotes Genesis 2:24 in Mark 10:7-8 when Pharisees ask whether a man may divorce his wife, and adds, “Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.” Paul quotes it again in Ephesians 5:31.

Malachi 2:14

“You ask, ‘Why?’ It is because the Lord is the witness between you and the wife of your youth. You have been unfaithful to her, though she is your partner, the wife of your marriage covenant.”

Reflection: Malachi addresses men of Judah who weep at the altar because the Lord “no longer looks with favor on your offerings” (Malachi 2:13). The reason given is their unfaithfulness to their wives, with the Lord as witness to each marriage. The wife is named “your partner, the wife of your marriage covenant,” and verse 16 says the man who hates and divorces his wife “does violence to the one he should protect.”

Proverbs 18:22

“He who finds a wife finds what is good and receives favor from the Lord.”

Reflection: The proverb sets finding a wife beside receiving the Lord’s favour. Proverbs 19:14 also credits a wife to the Lord: “Houses and wealth are inherited from parents, but a prudent wife is from the Lord.”

Proverbs 12:4

“A wife of noble character is her husband’s crown, but a disgraceful wife is like decay in his bones.”

Reflection: The proverb sets two wives side by side and names what each is to her husband: a crown, or decay in his bones. The phrase “wife of noble character” returns as the opening question of the poem in Proverbs 31:10.

Proverbs 31:10

“A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies.”

Reflection: This question opens the closing poem of Proverbs, which describes one wife through the rest of the chapter. She buys a field and plants a vineyard from her earnings, trades cloth with merchants, provides food for her household before dawn, and “opens her arms to the poor” (31:20). Verse 11 adds that “her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value.”

Proverbs 31:28

“Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her.”

Reflection: Her own household gives the praise: her children call her blessed, and her husband speaks the words of the next verse, “Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all.” Verse 23 notes that he is respected at the city gate, and the poem ends by asking that her works praise her there too (31:31).

Proverbs 31:30

“Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.”

Reflection: Near the end of the poem, the reason for the praise is given: charm and beauty pass, and the fear of the Lord is what the poem honours in her. The book of Proverbs opens with the same phrase, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge” (Proverbs 1:7), and closes with a woman who fears the Lord.

Ephesians 5:22

“Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord.”

Reflection: The verse follows directly from Ephesians 5:21: “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.” Paul then compares the husband’s headship to Christ’s headship of the church (5:23). Colossians 3:18-19 gives a shorter version: “Wives, submit yourselves to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them.” Christians read these instructions differently. The Danvers Statement of the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood says husbands “should forsake harsh or selfish leadership and grow in love and care for their wives,” and wives should “grow in willing, joyful submission to their husbands’ leadership.” The Christians for Biblical Equality statement places husband and wife in “a relationship of mutual submission and responsibility” and says the husband’s role as head “is to be understood as self-giving love and service.”

Ephesians 5:25

“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.”

Reflection: The instruction to husbands runs longer than the one to wives. Christ’s love is described by what he did for the church: he “gave himself up for her to make her holy” and to present her “without stain or wrinkle” (5:25-27). Paul then says husbands ought to love their wives “as their own bodies,” because “he who loves his wife loves himself” (5:28).

Ephesians 5:33

“However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.”

Reflection: Paul has just quoted Genesis 2:24 and called it “a profound mystery” about Christ and the church (5:31-32). This verse brings the passage back to ordinary marriage and sums up both sides: the husband is to love his wife as himself, and the wife is to respect her husband.

Titus 2:4-5

“Then they can urge the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God.”

Reflection: Paul tells Titus to have the older women teach the younger (Titus 2:3), after instructions for older men (2:2). The list begins with love for husbands and children and ends with being subject to husbands. The reason given concerns outsiders: “so that no one will malign the word of God.”

1 Peter 3:1

“Wives, in the same way submit yourselves to your own husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives.”

Reflection: “In the same way” links this verse to Peter’s instruction to slaves under harsh masters (1 Peter 2:18) and to Christ’s example of suffering without retaliation (2:21-23). Peter addresses all wives and then names the case where “any of them do not believe the word.” He expects such a husband to be won “without words,” when he sees “the purity and reverence of your lives” (3:2).

1 Peter 3:3-4

“Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.”

Reflection: These verses continue from 3:2, where an unbelieving husband sees “the purity and reverence of your lives.” Peter’s examples are “the holy women of the past who put their hope in God” and Sarah, “who obeyed Abraham and called him her lord” (3:5-6). He tells wives, “You are her daughters if you do what is right and do not give way to fear.”

1 Peter 3:7

“Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers.”

Reflection: The husband’s instruction also begins “in the same way.” He is to be considerate and to treat his wife with respect as “the weaker partner” and also as a co-heir “of the gracious gift of life.” Peter attaches a warning to it: the husband’s treatment of his wife bears on whether his prayers are hindered.

1 Corinthians 7:14

“For the unbelieving husband has been sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife has been sanctified through her believing husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy.”

Reflection: Paul is advising a believer married to an unbeliever who is willing to stay (7:12-13): the believer should not seek a divorce. The unbelieving spouse is “sanctified” through the believing one, and their children are holy. Paul does not promise that the unbeliever will come to faith: “How do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband?” (7:16).

Song of Solomon 4:9

“You have stolen my heart, my sister, my bride; you have stolen my heart with one glance of your eyes, with one jewel of your necklace.”

Reflection: The man speaks in this part of the Song, and in 4:8 he invites the woman he calls “my bride” to come with him from Lebanon. The next verse continues, “How delightful is your love, my sister, my bride! How much more pleasing is your love than wine.”

1 Corinthians 7:3-4

“The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband. The wife does not have authority over her own body but yields it to her husband. In the same way, the husband does not have authority over his own body but yields it to his wife.”

Reflection: Paul turns to “the matters you wrote about” (7:1), beginning with the line “It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.” He replies that husband and wife owe each other marital relations, and he puts each spouse’s body under the other’s authority in the same words. Verse 5 allows abstaining only “by mutual consent and for a time” for prayer.