What Does the Bible Say About Abusive Husbands?

Proverbs 20:30 ESV / 22 helpful votes

Blows that wound cleanse away evil; strokes make clean the innermost parts.

Proverbs 26:3 ESV / 13 helpful votes

A whip for the horse, a bridle for the donkey, and a rod for the back of fools.

1 Peter 3:7 ESV / 10 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.

Colossians 3:19 ESV / 8 helpful votes

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

Ephesians 5:25-29 ESV / 7 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. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church,

Mark 10:2-12 ESV / 7 helpful votes

And Pharisees came up and in order to test him asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” He answered them, “What did Moses command you?” They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce and to send her away.” And Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment. But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ ...

1 Corinthians 7:12-16 ESV / 6 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. 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. For how do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?

1 Corinthians 7:10 ESV / 6 helpful votes

To the married I give this charge (not I, but the Lord): the wife should not separate from her husband

1 John 1:9 ESV / 5 helpful votes

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Luke 16:18 ESV / 5 helpful votes

“Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery.

1 Peter 3:1 ESV / 4 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,

Ephesians 5:22 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.

1 Corinthians 7:11 ESV / 4 helpful votes

(but if she does, she should remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband), and the husband should not divorce his wife.

Matthew 19:3-9 ESV / 4 helpful votes

And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause?” 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.” They said to him, “Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?” ...

1 Peter 3:6 ESV / 3 helpful votes

As Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord. And you are her children, if you do good and do not fear anything that is frightening.

Hebrews 13:4 ESV / 3 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.

Matthew 5:32 ESV / 3 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.

Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 ESV / 3 helpful votes

The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.

Proverbs 31:6-7 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Give strong drink to the one who is perishing, and wine to those in bitter distress; let them drink and forget their poverty and remember their misery no more.

Psalm 118:1-18 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever! Let Israel say, “His steadfast love endures forever.” Let the house of Aaron say, “His steadfast love endures forever.” Let those who fear the Lord say, “His steadfast love endures forever.” Out of my distress I called on the Lord; the Lord answered me and set me free. ...

Revelation 14:12 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus.

1 John 2:4 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him,

Ephesians 5:21 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.

1 Corinthians 7:15 ESV / 2 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 Corinthians 7:2 ESV / 2 helpful votes

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

Romans 7:2 ESV / 2 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.

Matthew 19:9 ESV / 2 helpful votes

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

2 Peter 3:9 ESV / 1 helpful vote

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.

Ephesians 5:25 ESV / 1 helpful vote

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

1 Corinthians 6:9-11 ESV / 1 helpful vote

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

Acts 15:8 ESV / 1 helpful vote

And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them, by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us,

Matthew 5:29 ESV / 1 helpful vote

If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.

Bible Verses about Abusive Husbands