100 Bible Verses about Unhappy Marriages

Hebrews 13:4 ESV / 79 helpful votes

Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.

1 Corinthians 7:15 ESV / 71 helpful votes

But if the unbelieving partner separates, let it be so. In such cases the brother or sister is not enslaved. God has called you to peace.

1 Peter 3:7 ESV / 69 helpful votes

Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.

1 Peter 3:1 ESV / 61 helpful votes

Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives,

Proverbs 18:22 ESV / 59 helpful votes

He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord.

Ephesians 5:25 ESV / 56 helpful votes

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

1 Corinthians 7:1-40 ESV / 56 helpful votes

Now concerning the matters about which you wrote: “It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.” But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband. The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband. For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer; but then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. ...

Matthew 19:9 ESV / 54 helpful votes

And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.”

Matthew 19:6 ESV / 51 helpful votes

So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”

1 Corinthians 7:10-16 ESV / 48 helpful votes

To the married I give this charge (not I, but the Lord): the wife should not separate from her husband (but if she does, she should remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband), and the husband should not divorce his wife. To the rest I say (I, not the Lord) that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he should not divorce her. If any woman has a husband who is an unbeliever, and he consents to live with her, she should not divorce him. For the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy. ...

James 1:1-27 ESV / 46 helpful votes

James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion: Greetings. Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. ...

Malachi 2:16 ESV / 45 helpful votes

“For the man who does not love his wife but divorces her, says the Lord, the God of Israel, covers his garment with violence, says the Lord of hosts. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and do not be faithless.”

2 Corinthians 6:14 ESV / 42 helpful votes

Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?

Ephesians 5:1-33 ESV / 41 helpful votes

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. ...

Genesis 2:24 ESV / 41 helpful votes

Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

Ephesians 5:22-24 ESV / 40 helpful votes

Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.

Romans 7:2 ESV / 36 helpful votes

For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 ESV / 34 helpful votes

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Proverbs 31:10 ESV / 33 helpful votes

An excellent wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels.

Matthew 5:31 ESV / 30 helpful votes

“It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’

Romans 7:3 ESV / 29 helpful votes

Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress.

1 Peter 4:8 ESV / 28 helpful votes

Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.

Colossians 3:18-19 ESV / 28 helpful votes

Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them.

1 John 2:1-29 ESV / 27 helpful votes

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: ...

Jude 1:7 ESV / 26 helpful votes

Just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.

Genesis 2:18 ESV / 26 helpful votes

Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”

Titus 1:6 ESV / 25 helpful votes

If anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife, and his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination.

1 Corinthians 7:2 ESV / 25 helpful votes

But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband.

1 Corinthians 7:5 ESV / 24 helpful votes

Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer; but then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.

Proverbs 12:4 ESV / 23 helpful votes

An excellent wife is the crown of her husband, but she who brings shame is like rottenness in his bones.

Colossians 3:14 ESV / 22 helpful votes

And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.

Ephesians 5:33 ESV / 22 helpful votes

However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

Ephesians 5:21 ESV / 22 helpful votes

Submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.

Mark 10:9 ESV / 22 helpful votes

What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”

Matthew 19:4-6 ESV / 22 helpful votes

He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”

Mark 10:11-12 ESV / 21 helpful votes

And he said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her, and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”

James 1:3-4 ESV / 20 helpful votes

For you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

Mark 10:6-9 ESV / 19 helpful votes

But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”

Proverbs 19:14 ESV / 19 helpful votes

House and wealth are inherited from fathers, but a prudent wife is from the Lord.

John 3:1-36 ESV / 17 helpful votes

Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. ...

Matthew 5:27-28 ESV / 17 helpful votes

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

1 Peter 3:1-6 ESV / 16 helpful votes

Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives, when they see your respectful and pure conduct. Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear— but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious. For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves, by submitting to their own husbands, ...

Colossians 3:19 ESV / 16 helpful votes

Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them.

John 16:33 ESV / 16 helpful votes

I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

Luke 1:37 ESV / 16 helpful votes

For nothing will be impossible with God.”

Ephesians 5:25-28 ESV / 15 helpful votes

Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.

Ephesians 4:2 ESV / 15 helpful votes

With all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love,

Ephesians 4:2-3 ESV / 15 helpful votes

With all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

1 Corinthians 7:12-14 ESV / 15 helpful votes

To the rest I say (I, not the Lord) that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he should not divorce her. If any woman has a husband who is an unbeliever, and he consents to live with her, she should not divorce him. For the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy.

Deuteronomy 24:5 ESV / 15 helpful votes

“When a man is newly married, he shall not go out with the army or be liable for any other public duty. He shall be free at home one year to be happy with his wife whom he has taken.

Exodus 20:14 ESV / 15 helpful votes

“You shall not commit adultery.

Philippians 4:4 ESV / 14 helpful votes

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.

Romans 16:19 ESV / 14 helpful votes

For your obedience is known to all, so that I rejoice over you, but I want you to be wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is evil.

Romans 10:9 ESV / 14 helpful votes

Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

Mark 10:8 ESV / 14 helpful votes

And the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh.

Matthew 18:15-16 ESV / 14 helpful votes

“If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.

Jeremiah 29:11 ESV / 14 helpful votes

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

Genesis 2:22-24 ESV / 14 helpful votes

And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

Hebrews 13:4-7 ESV / 13 helpful votes

Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous. Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?” Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.

Ephesians 5:31 ESV / 13 helpful votes

“Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”

Ephesians 5:22-33 ESV / 13 helpful votes

Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, ...

1 Corinthians 7:16 ESV / 13 helpful votes

For how do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?

Ecclesiastes 4:12 ESV / 13 helpful votes

And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken.

Proverbs 30:18-19 ESV / 13 helpful votes

Three things are too wonderful for me; four I do not understand: the way of an eagle in the sky, the way of a serpent on a rock, the way of a ship on the high seas, and the way of a man with a virgin.

1 Peter 3:12 ESV / 12 helpful votes

For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”

Ephesians 5:21-33 ESV / 12 helpful votes

Submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, ...

1 Corinthians 13:4-5 ESV / 12 helpful votes

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 ESV / 12 helpful votes

Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken.

Proverbs 5:18-19 ESV / 12 helpful votes

Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth, a lovely deer, a graceful doe. Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight; be intoxicated always in her love.

2 Peter 3:9 ESV / 11 helpful votes

The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

Colossians 3:18 ESV / 11 helpful votes

Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.

1 Corinthians 13:2 ESV / 11 helpful votes

And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

1 Corinthians 7:1-5 ESV / 11 helpful votes

Now concerning the matters about which you wrote: “It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.” But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband. The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband. For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer; but then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.

Romans 12:10 ESV / 11 helpful votes

Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.

Isaiah 54:5 ESV / 11 helpful votes

For your Maker is your husband, the Lord of hosts is his name; and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer, the God of the whole earth he is called.

Song of Solomon 4:9 ESV / 11 helpful votes

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

Proverbs 20:6-7 ESV / 11 helpful votes

Many a man proclaims his own steadfast love, but a faithful man who can find? The righteous who walks in his integrity— blessed are his children after him!

Genesis 1:27-28 ESV / 11 helpful votes

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

1 Corinthians 11:8-9 ESV / 10 helpful votes

For man was not made from woman, but woman from man. Neither was man created for woman, but woman for man.

1 Corinthians 7:3 ESV / 10 helpful votes

The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband.

1 Corinthians 6:18 ESV / 10 helpful votes

Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.

John 4:16-18 ESV / 10 helpful votes

Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.”

Matthew 19:8 ESV / 10 helpful votes

He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.

Matthew 5:32 ESV / 10 helpful votes

But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

Malachi 2:14-15 ESV / 10 helpful votes

But you say, “Why does he not?” Because the Lord was witness between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant. Did he not make them one, with a portion of the Spirit in their union? And what was the one God seeking? Godly offspring. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and let none of you be faithless to the wife of your youth.

1 Chronicles 16:11 ESV / 10 helpful votes

Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually!

Genesis 1:28 ESV / 10 helpful votes

And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

Ephesians 5:25-27 ESV / 9 helpful votes

Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.

Ephesians 5:3 ESV / 9 helpful votes

But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints.

Ephesians 4:32 ESV / 9 helpful votes

Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

2 Corinthians 4:4 ESV / 9 helpful votes

In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

Romans 10:13 ESV / 9 helpful votes

For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Matthew 19:7-9 ESV / 9 helpful votes

They said to him, “Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?” He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.”

1 Corinthians 7:24 ESV / 8 helpful votes

So, brothers, in whatever condition each was called, there let him remain with God.

Romans 8:28 ESV / 8 helpful votes

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

Amos 3:3 ESV / 8 helpful votes

“Do two walk together, unless they have agreed to meet?

Psalm 85:10 ESV / 8 helpful votes

Steadfast love and faithfulness meet; righteousness and peace kiss each other.

1 John 4:7 ESV / 6 helpful votes

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.

Colossians 3:1 ESV / 6 helpful votes

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

Ephesians 5:22-23 ESV / 6 helpful votes

Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior.

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