What Does the Bible Say About Monogamy?

1 Corinthians 7:2 ESV / 36 helpful votes

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

Deuteronomy 17:17 ESV / 30 helpful votes

And he shall not acquire many wives for himself, lest his heart turn away, nor shall he acquire for himself excessive silver and gold.

1 Corinthians 7:1-40 ESV / 25 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. ...

1 Timothy 3:2 ESV / 15 helpful votes

Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach,

Mark 10:8 ESV / 11 helpful votes

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

1 Timothy 3:1-16 ESV / 9 helpful votes

The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church? ...

Mark 10:7 ESV / 9 helpful votes

‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife,

Leviticus 18:18 ESV / 7 helpful votes

And you shall not take a woman as a rival wife to her sister, uncovering her nakedness while her sister is still alive.

Matthew 19:9 ESV / 6 helpful votes

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

Genesis 2:24 ESV / 5 helpful votes

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

Matthew 5:32 ESV / 4 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.

Matthew 19:3-6 ESV / 3 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.”

Song of Solomon 6:1-13 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Where has your beloved gone, O most beautiful among women? Where has your beloved turned, that we may seek him with you? My beloved has gone down to his garden to the beds of spices, to graze in the gardens and to gather lilies. I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine; he grazes among the lilies. You are beautiful as Tirzah, my love, lovely as Jerusalem, awesome as an army with banners. Turn away your eyes from me, for they overwhelm me— Your hair is like a flock of goats leaping down the slopes of Gilead. ...

Exodus 21:10 ESV / 3 helpful votes

If he takes another wife to himself, he shall not diminish her food, her clothing, or her marital rights.

Genesis 30:1-43 ESV / 3 helpful votes

When Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, she envied her sister. She said to Jacob, “Give me children, or I shall die!” Jacob's anger was kindled against Rachel, and he said, “Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?” Then she said, “Here is my servant Bilhah; go in to her, so that she may give birth on my behalf, that even I may have children through her.” So she gave him her servant Bilhah as a wife, and Jacob went in to her. And Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son. ...

Romans 7:3 ESV / 2 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.

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.

Mark 10:11-12 ESV / 2 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.”

Genesis 28:9 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Esau went to Ishmael and took as his wife, besides the wives he had, Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham's son, the sister of Nebaioth.

Genesis 4:19 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And Lamech took two wives. The name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other Zillah.

1 Corinthians 6:16 ESV / 1 helpful vote

Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.”

Romans 13:5 ESV / 1 helpful vote

Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath but also for the sake of conscience.

Romans 13:3 ESV / 1 helpful vote

For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval,

Mark 10:1-52 ESV / 1 helpful vote

And he left there and went to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan, and crowds gathered to him again. And again, as was his custom, he taught them. 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. ...

Matthew 25:11 ESV / 1 helpful vote

Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’

Matthew 25:5 ESV / 1 helpful vote

As the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept.

Matthew 25:1 ESV / 1 helpful vote

“Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom.

Matthew 22:44 ESV / 1 helpful vote

“‘The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet’?

Matthew 21:19 ESV / 1 helpful vote

And seeing a fig tree by the wayside, he went to it and found nothing on it but only leaves. And he said to it, “May no fruit ever come from you again!” And the fig tree withered at once.

Matthew 19:3 ESV / 1 helpful vote

And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause?”

Matthew 19:1-30 ESV / 1 helpful vote

Now when Jesus had finished these sayings, he went away from Galilee and entered the region of Judea beyond the Jordan. And large crowds followed him, and he healed them there. 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’? ...

1 Kings 11:1 ESV / 1 helpful vote

Now King Solomon loved many foreign women, along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women,

2 Samuel 12:8 ESV / 1 helpful vote

And I gave you your master's house and your master's wives into your arms and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah. And if this were too little, I would add to you as much more.

Ruth 1:1-22 ESV / 1 helpful vote

In the days when the judges ruled there was a famine in the land, and a man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. The name of the man was Elimelech and the name of his wife Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They went into the country of Moab and remained there. But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left with her two sons. These took Moabite wives; the name of the one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth. They lived there about ten years, and both Mahlon and Chilion died, so that the woman was left without her two sons and her husband. ...

Judges 8:30 ESV / 1 helpful vote

Now Gideon had seventy sons, his own offspring, for he had many wives.

Deuteronomy 21:16 ESV / 1 helpful vote

Then on the day when he assigns his possessions as an inheritance to his sons, he may not treat the son of the loved as the firstborn in preference to the son of the unloved, who is the firstborn,

Deuteronomy 21:15-17 ESV / 1 helpful vote

“If a man has two wives, the one loved and the other unloved, and both the loved and the unloved have borne him children, and if the firstborn son belongs to the unloved, then on the day when he assigns his possessions as an inheritance to his sons, he may not treat the son of the loved as the firstborn in preference to the son of the unloved, who is the firstborn, but he shall acknowledge the firstborn, the son of the unloved, by giving him a double portion of all that he has, for he is the firstfruits of his strength. The right of the firstborn is his.

Deuteronomy 21:1-23 ESV / 1 helpful vote

“If in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess someone is found slain, lying in the open country, and it is not known who killed him, then your elders and your judges shall come out, and they shall measure the distance to the surrounding cities. And the elders of the city that is nearest to the slain man shall take a heifer that has never been worked and that has not pulled in a yoke. And the elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a valley with running water, which is neither plowed nor sown, and shall break the heifer's neck there in the valley. Then the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come forward, for the Lord your God has chosen them to minister to him and to bless in the name of the Lord, and by their word every dispute and every assault shall be settled. ...

Deuteronomy 17:15 ESV / 1 helpful vote

You may indeed set a king over you whom the Lord your God will choose. One from among your brothers you shall set as king over you. You may not put a foreigner over you, who is not your brother.

Exodus 21:9 ESV / 1 helpful vote

If he designates her for his son, he shall deal with her as with a daughter.

Exodus 21:8 ESV / 1 helpful vote

If she does not please her master, who has designated her for himself, then he shall let her be redeemed. He shall have no right to sell her to a foreign people, since he has broken faith with her.

Exodus 21:7 ESV / 1 helpful vote

“When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she shall not go out as the male slaves do.

Exodus 20:17 ESV / 1 helpful vote

“You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's.”

Genesis 30:4 ESV / 1 helpful vote

So she gave him her servant Bilhah as a wife, and Jacob went in to her.

Genesis 30:3 ESV / 1 helpful vote

Then she said, “Here is my servant Bilhah; go in to her, so that she may give birth on my behalf, that even I may have children through her.”

Genesis 30:1 ESV / 1 helpful vote

When Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, she envied her sister. She said to Jacob, “Give me children, or I shall die!”

Genesis 29:31 ESV / 1 helpful vote

When the Lord saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren.

Genesis 29:30 ESV / 1 helpful vote

So Jacob went in to Rachel also, and he loved Rachel more than Leah, and served Laban for another seven years.

Genesis 29:29 ESV / 1 helpful vote

(Laban gave his female servant Bilhah to his daughter Rachel to be her servant.)

Genesis 29:28 ESV / 1 helpful vote

Jacob did so, and completed her week. Then Laban gave him his daughter Rachel to be his wife.

Genesis 29:27 ESV / 1 helpful vote

Complete the week of this one, and we will give you the other also in return for serving me another seven years.”

Bible Verses about Monogamy