SCRIPTURE BY TOPIC
Marriage is the first covenant God made with humanity — and one of the hardest to live. These verses, plus Restoration scriptures on covenant marriage, meet you in the season you're actually in, with what Scripture says for now.
If you need a verse on marriage today — for yourself, for a spouse, for a wedding, for a season that's hard — start here.
Maybe you are engaged, doing the spiritual due diligence before the wedding. Maybe you are a year in, trying to learn how this works. Maybe the kids are small and you cannot remember the last time you and your spouse looked at each other on purpose. Maybe you have been married twenty years and one of you has been quietly slipping away from the other for the last eighteen months. Maybe you are sitting up at midnight tonight after a fight you do not know how to fix.
If your marriage is in real crisis right now — contempt, infidelity, talk of separation, abuse — start with When Your Marriage Is Struggling first. This page is for the daily work of building. That page is for the emergency.
What follows is twenty-eight KJV Bible verses on marriage — plus a Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants companion — organized so you can find the ones for your season. Read the ones that match where you are. Skip the rest. Come back when the season changes.
Genesis 2:24
"Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh."
The foundational marriage verse, spoken by God before the fall — and later quoted by Jesus when asked about divorce (Matthew 19:5). "Leave and cleave" defines two movements: a break from the family of origin and a permanent binding to a spouse. Both are required for the one-flesh union to form.
Ephesians 5:25
"Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it."
Paul sets the standard for a husband's love at the highest point imaginable: Christ's death for his bride. This is not sentiment — it is self-abandonment. The husband who loves like this is not looking to be served; he is looking for ways to lay himself down. That kind of love changes a marriage.
1 Corinthians 13:4–7
"Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things."
Read at more weddings than any other passage, these verses are not primarily about romance — they are about covenant love that outlasts feeling. Replace "charity" with your own name. That gap between description and reality is where the daily work of marriage happens.
Proverbs 31:10
"Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies."
The Hebrew word translated "virtuous" is chayil — strength, valor, capability. This is not a passive portrait. The Proverbs 31 woman is industrious, wise, generous, and deeply trusted by her husband. The verse is a call to character, not a checklist, and its opening question suggests this kind of strength is rare and worth seeking.
Mark 10:9
"What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder."
Jesus's words in response to questions about divorce cut to the core: God is the one who joins a couple, not just the ceremony or the legal paperwork. The implication is sobering and freeing at once — your marriage is not merely a human contract. God has been involved from the beginning, and he has a stake in its preservation.
Ecclesiastes 4:9–12
"Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to lift him up... and a threefold cord is not quickly broken."
Solomon's wisdom on companionship is some of the most practically honest in Scripture. Marriage is better not because it is easier, but because two people facing life together accomplish more, recover faster, and endure longer than one alone. The threefold cord — husband, wife, and God — is the strongest structure of all.
"And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him."
"And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder."
"Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge."
"For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church."
"Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favour of the LORD."
"So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself."
"Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered."
"Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it: if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned."
"Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them."
"And Ruth said, Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God: Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried."
"A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger."
"And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you."
"Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath."
"Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain."
Different verses do different work in different seasons of a marriage. These six blocks pair one anchoring passage with one concrete this-week practice for where you actually are.
Ecclesiastes 9:9 — "Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest all the days of the life of thy vanity."
This week: Decide together on one daily shared rhythm — a prayer, a meal without screens, a verse read aloud. The pattern you set in year one is the pattern you will have to fight to keep in year ten.
Song of Solomon 2:10 — "Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away."
This week: Take fifteen minutes to look at each other — not the kids, not the screens, not the inbox. The porch after bedtime. The car before everyone wakes up. Long marriages survive on these small re-finding moments.
Ephesians 4:32 — "And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you."
This week: If contempt or infidelity is present, this page will not save your marriage by itself. Start at When Your Marriage Is Struggling and get help from a qualified counselor. Then come back to these verses for the long work of rebuilding.
1 Peter 3:1–4 — "That, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives."
This week: Do not preach. Live so beautifully that your spouse asks why. Pray for them by name every morning before getting out of bed. Patience here is years, not weeks — but it is the path Peter actually prescribes.
Proverbs 5:18–19 — "Rejoice with the wife of thy youth. Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe."
This week: Tell your spouse one specific thing you appreciate about who they are now — not who they were when you married them. Long marriages need the gift of being seen in the present.
Ruth 1:16–17 — "Whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God."
This week: Build a new shared rhythm now that the kids are gone — a walk, a Sabbath practice, a study, a weekly date. The marriage you have at 60 is not the one you had at 30. Build it intentionally instead of drifting.
The Bible names marriage as central; the Restoration scriptures sharpen the picture. They tighten the demand for fidelity, they raise the stakes from "until death" to forever, and they name the daily inner work that any real marriage requires. Read these alongside the Bible verses above.
Jacob 2:27–28
"Wherefore, my brethren, hear me, and hearken to the word of the Lord: For there shall not any man among you have save it be one wife; and concubines he shall have none... For I, the Lord God, delight in the chastity of women."
Jacob's sermon is one of the most blistering passages in scripture about how men's infidelity wounds their wives and children. The Lord's heart on marital faithfulness is unmistakable — and the language is tender toward the wives and harsh toward the unfaithful. If you have ever doubted that God takes the pain of a betrayed spouse personally, read Jacob 2 slowly.
D&C 42:22
"Thou shalt love thy wife with all thy heart, and shalt cleave unto her and none else."
Two commandments compressed into one verse. Total love and total fidelity. Both are required; neither alone is enough. Notice the parallel to Deuteronomy 6:5 — "thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart." The Lord asks for marriage-love in the same key as the love we owe him.
D&C 49:15–17
"Whoso forbiddeth to marry is not ordained of God, for marriage is ordained of God unto man. Wherefore, it is lawful that he should have one wife... that the earth might answer the end of its creation."
Marriage is not a side-track from spiritual life or a concession to weakness. It is presented as central to the purpose of creation itself — what the earth itself was made to support. This frames every ordinary married couple as living inside the original intent of God.
D&C 131:1–4
"In the celestial glory there are three heavens or degrees; And in order to obtain the highest, a man must enter into this order of the priesthood, meaning the new and everlasting covenant of marriage."
The doctrine of eternal marriage. For Latter-day Saints especially, marriage is not "until death do you part" — it is a covenant designed to endure forever. This both raises the stakes of every present-day marriage and offers the comfort that the work you are doing now is not for a few decades, but for an eternity together.
Mosiah 3:19
"The natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord."
King Benjamin is talking about discipleship — but read it through marriage and almost nothing changes. Most marriage conflict is two natural men or women colliding: selfishness, pride, score-keeping, reactivity, defensiveness. The path of marriage is the path of putting off the natural self. Both spouses are doing this work, in front of each other, every day. The atonement is what makes it possible.
Together with the Bible verses above, these scriptures give you a complete picture: marriage is God's first covenant, marriage is central to creation's purpose, marriage demands fidelity and total love, marriage can endure forever — and marriage is the daily school where the natural self is put off and Christ is put on.
The Bible presents marriage as the first institution God created, established in Genesis 2 before the fall and before the church. God designed marriage as a covenant between one man and one woman (Genesis 2:24), rooted in love and sacrificial commitment. The New Testament deepens this picture: Ephesians 5:22-33 describes marriage as an image of Christ's relationship with the church — the most profound metaphor in Scripture. The Bible consistently presents marriage as holy, enduring, and worth fighting for.
Genesis 2:24 — "Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh" — is the foundational marriage verse, quoted by Jesus himself in Matthew 19:5. Ephesians 5:25 is the most cited verse on the husband's role. For practical marriage wisdom, Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 and Proverbs 31:10 are widely beloved. 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 is read at more weddings than any other passage in Scripture.
A godly marriage in Scripture is one that reflects Christ's love for the church — self-giving, sacrificial, and covenant-bound. Ephesians 5 calls husbands to love as Christ loved and wives to respect as the church respects Christ. Proverbs 31 describes a wife of noble character as more valuable than rubies. Ecclesiastes 4:12 reminds couples that "a threefold cord is not quickly broken" — a marriage with God at its center has strength that two alone cannot manufacture. The recurring theme is that godly marriage is less about finding the right person and more about becoming the right person through love, patience, forgiveness, and daily commitment.
Scripture does not pretend hard marriages are uncommon — many of its central marriages were hard (Abraham and Sarah, Jacob and Leah and Rachel, Hosea and Gomer). The Bible's counsel for a struggling marriage centers on four things: 1 Corinthians 13:4–7 (a description of love that, lived honestly, dismantles most relational gridlock); Ephesians 4:32 (kindness and forgiveness as non-optional); Ephesians 5:25 and 1 Peter 3:7 (Christ-like self-giving from the husband, lest his prayers be hindered); and Psalm 127:1 ("except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain"). Most marriages in real trouble need more than scripture in isolation. If contempt, infidelity, or talk of separation is present, get pastoral counsel and a qualified counselor — the Bible expects both. Start at When Your Marriage Is Struggling.
Jacob 2:27–28 contains some of the most direct scripture on marital fidelity — "there shall not any man among you have save it be one wife." D&C 42:22 compresses two commandments into one verse: "Thou shalt love thy wife with all thy heart, and shalt cleave unto her and none else." D&C 49:15–17 frames marriage as central to the purpose of creation itself. D&C 131:1–4 introduces the doctrine of eternal marriage — a covenant designed to endure beyond death — which gives every present-day marriage a stake far larger than the years on earth. Mosiah 3:19's call to "put off the natural man" is one of the most practical descriptions of the daily work inside any marriage: putting off pride, selfishness, score-keeping, and reactivity for the work of becoming a saint with the person you share a roof with.
The Clarity Edition brings every marriage passage to life with modern-language rewrites and study aids — helping you understand what God designed marriage to be and how to build one that lasts.
Share what you're learning with your Inner Circle — the covenant path was never meant to be walked alone.