who you should marry

¹⁴Do not choose to bear the yoke with unbelievers. For how can justice be a participant with iniquity? Or how can the fellowship of light be a participant with darkness?

¹⁰Who shall find a strong woman? Far away, and from the furthest parts, is her price. ¹¹The heart of her husband confides in her, and he will not be deprived of spoils. ¹²She will repay him with good, and not evil, all the days of her life. ¹³She has sought wool and flax, and she has worked these by the counsel of her hands. ¹⁴She has become like a merchant’s ship, bringing her bread from far away. ¹⁵And she has risen in the night, and given a prey to her household, and provisions to her maids.

¹⁸The Lord God also said: “It is not good for the man to be alone. Let us make a helper for him similar to himself.”

¹Now concerning the things about which you wrote to me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman. ²But, because of fornication, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband. ³A husband should fulfill his obligation to his wife, and a wife should also act similarly toward her husband. ⁴It is not the wife, but the husband, who has power over her body. But, similarly also, it is not the husband, but the wife, who has power over his body. ⁵So, do not fail in your obligations to one another, except perhaps by consent, for a limited time, so that you may empty yourselves for prayer. And then, return together again, lest Satan tempt you by means of your abstinence. ⁶But I am saying this, neither as an indulgence, nor as a commandment.

³And you shall not associate with them in marriage. You shall not give your daughter to his son, nor accept his daughter for your son. ⁴For she will seduce your son, so that he will not follow me, and so that he will instead serve foreign gods. And the fury of the Lord will be enraged, and he will quickly destroy you.

⁴And he said to them in response, “Have you not read that he who made man from the beginning, made them male and female?” And he said: ⁵“For this reason, a man shall separate from father and mother, and he shall cling to his wife, and these two shall become one flesh. ⁶And so, now they are not two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, let no man separate.”

²For example, a woman who is subject to a husband is obligated by the law while her husband lives. But when her husband has died, she is released from the law of her husband.

¹²And if a wife dismisses her husband, and is married to another, she commits adultery.”

⁴May marriage be honorable in every way, and may the marriage bed be immaculate. For God will judge fornicators and adulterers.

²²Wives should be submissive to their husbands, as to the Lord. ²³For the husband is the head of the wife, just as Christ is the head of the Church. He is the Savior of his body. ²⁴Therefore, just as the Church is subject to Christ, so also should wives be subject to their husbands in all things. ²⁵Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the Church and handed himself over for her, ²⁶so that he might sanctify her, washing her clean by water and the Word of life, ²⁷so that he might offer her to himself as a glorious Church, not having any spot or wrinkle or any such thing, so that she would be holy and immaculate.

⁶No man shall approach her who is a close blood-relative to him, so as to uncover her nakedness. I am the Lord. ⁷You shall not expose the nakedness of your father, or the nakedness of your mother. She is your mother; you shall not uncover her nakedness. ⁸You shall not expose the nakedness of your father’s wife; for it is the nakedness of your father. ⁹You shall not uncover the nakedness of your sister, whether from father or from mother, whether she was born at home or abroad. ¹⁰You shall not uncover the nakedness of your son’s daughter, or your daughter’s daughter; for it is your own nakedness. ¹¹You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s wife’s daughter, whom she bore to your father, and who is your sister.

⁶And so, this is the law which has been promulgated by the Lord about the daughters of Zelophehad: Let them marry whomever they may wish, but only among the men of their own tribe,

¹⁰But the God of all grace, who has called us to his eternal glory in Christ Jesus, will himself perfect, confirm, and establish us, after a brief time of suffering.

³³Yet truly, each and every one of you should love his wife as himself. And a wife should fear her husband.

¹⁸Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery. And whoever marries her who has been divorced by her husband commits adultery.

⁹And I say to you, that whoever will have separated from his wife, except because of fornication, and who will have married another, commits adultery, and whoever will have married her who has been separated, commits adultery.”

²And approaching, the Pharisees questioned him, testing him: “Is it lawful for a man to dismiss his wife?” ³But in response, he said to them, “What did Moses instruct you?” ⁴And they said, “Moses gave permission to write a bill of divorce and to dismiss her.” ⁵But Jesus responded by saying: “It was due to the hardness of your heart that he wrote that precept for you. ⁶But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female. ⁷Because of this, a man shall leave behind his father and mother, and he shall cling to his wife.

¹“If a man takes a wife, and he has her, and she does not find favor before his eyes because of some vileness, then he shall write a bill of divorce, and he shall give it to her hand, and he shall dismiss her from his house. ²And when, having departed, she has married another, ³and if he likewise hates her, and has given her a bill of divorce, and has dismissed her from his house, or if indeed he has died, ⁴then the former husband cannot take her back as a wife. For she has been polluted and has become abominable in the sight of the Lord. Otherwise, you may cause your land, which the Lord your God will deliver to you as a possession, to sin.

³²But I say to you, that anyone who will have dismissed his wife, except in the case of fornication, causes her to commit adultery; and whoever will have married her who has been dismissed commits adultery.