100 Bible Verses about Wifely Duties

Titus 2:4-5 ESV / 226 helpful votes

And so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.

1 Peter 3:1-6 ESV / 209 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, ...

1 Corinthians 7:3-9 ESV / 207 helpful votes

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. Now as a concession, not a command, I say this. I wish that all were as I myself am. But each has his own gift from God, one of one kind and one of another. ...

Ephesians 5:33 ESV / 156 helpful votes

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

Ephesians 5:22-33 ESV / 146 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 11:3 ESV / 146 helpful votes

But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God.

Colossians 3:18 ESV / 132 helpful votes

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

1 Corinthians 7:13-16 ESV / 116 helpful votes

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?

Proverbs 14:1 ESV / 114 helpful votes

The wisest of women builds her house, but folly with her own hands tears it down.

1 Timothy 5:8 ESV / 103 helpful votes

But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

Ephesians 5:1-33 ESV / 93 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. ...

Ephesians 5:22 ESV / 90 helpful votes

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

1 Corinthians 7:5 ESV / 89 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.

1 Peter 3:7 ESV / 88 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.

Genesis 3:16 ESV / 85 helpful votes

To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.”

Matthew 19:6 ESV / 81 helpful votes

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

Proverbs 31:1-31 ESV / 81 helpful votes

The words of King Lemuel. An oracle that his mother taught him: What are you doing, my son? What are you doing, son of my womb? What are you doing, son of my vows? Do not give your strength to women, your ways to those who destroy kings. It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine, or for rulers to take strong drink, lest they drink and forget what has been decreed and pervert the rights of all the afflicted. ...

Genesis 2:18 ESV / 80 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.”

Proverbs 31:10-31 ESV / 78 helpful votes

An excellent wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels. The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain. She does him good, and not harm, all the days of her life. She seeks wool and flax, and works with willing hands. She is like the ships of the merchant; she brings her food from afar. ...

1 Peter 3:1 ESV / 70 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,

Genesis 2:24 ESV / 69 helpful votes

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

Titus 2:5 ESV / 67 helpful votes

To be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.

Ephesians 5:25 ESV / 67 helpful votes

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

Matthew 19:5 ESV / 67 helpful votes

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’?

Titus 2:4 ESV / 62 helpful votes

And so train the young women to love their husbands and children,

Ephesians 5:23 ESV / 57 helpful votes

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.

Colossians 3:19 ESV / 55 helpful votes

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

Luke 16:18 ESV / 54 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 Corinthians 7:2 ESV / 53 helpful votes

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

Titus 2:3-5 ESV / 50 helpful votes

Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.

Proverbs 12:4 ESV / 50 helpful votes

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

1 Corinthians 11:1-34 ESV / 49 helpful votes

Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ. Now I commend you because you remember me in everything and maintain the traditions even as I delivered them to you. But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God. Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonors his head, but every wife who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head, since it is the same as if her head were shaven. ...

Mark 10:12 ESV / 49 helpful votes

And if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”

1 Corinthians 7:1-40 ESV / 45 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. ...

Song of Solomon 4:10-11 ESV / 43 helpful votes

How beautiful is your love, my sister, my bride! How much better is your love than wine, and the fragrance of your oils than any spice! Your lips drip nectar, my bride; honey and milk are under your tongue; the fragrance of your garments is like the fragrance of Lebanon.

Proverbs 31:30 ESV / 43 helpful votes

Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.

Genesis 1:28 ESV / 43 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.”

1 Peter 3:4 ESV / 41 helpful votes

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.

Ephesians 5:22-24 ESV / 39 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.

Colossians 3:18-19 ESV / 38 helpful votes

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

Ephesians 6:4 ESV / 38 helpful votes

Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

Genesis 2:23 ESV / 38 helpful votes

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.”

Ephesians 5:28 ESV / 36 helpful votes

In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.

Matthew 5:28 ESV / 36 helpful votes

But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

Proverbs 31:10 ESV / 36 helpful votes

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

Proverbs 31:12 ESV / 35 helpful votes

She does him good, and not harm, all the days of her life.

Hebrews 13:4 ESV / 34 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.

Proverbs 31:28 ESV / 33 helpful votes

Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her:

Proverbs 18:22 ESV / 33 helpful votes

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

1 Timothy 5:14 ESV / 32 helpful votes

So I would have younger widows marry, bear children, manage their households, and give the adversary no occasion for slander.

Ruth 3:11 ESV / 32 helpful votes

And now, my daughter, do not fear. I will do for you all that you ask, for all my fellow townsmen know that you are a worthy woman.

1 Peter 3:3 ESV / 31 helpful votes

Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear—

Proverbs 31:26 ESV / 31 helpful votes

She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.

Proverbs 5:18-19 ESV / 31 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.

1 Peter 3:6 ESV / 30 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.

1 Corinthians 7:3-5 ESV / 30 helpful votes

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.

Ephesians 5:21 ESV / 29 helpful votes

Submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.

Colossians 3:1 ESV / 28 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 5:31 ESV / 28 helpful votes

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

Proverbs 31:27 ESV / 28 helpful votes

She looks well to the ways of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness.

Proverbs 31:16 ESV / 28 helpful votes

She considers a field and buys it; with the fruit of her hands she plants a vineyard.

Proverbs 19:14 ESV / 28 helpful votes

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

1 Peter 3:2 ESV / 27 helpful votes

When they see your respectful and pure conduct.

1 Timothy 3:2 ESV / 27 helpful votes

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

1 Corinthians 7:3 ESV / 27 helpful votes

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

Matthew 5:27 ESV / 27 helpful votes

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’

Proverbs 31:23 ESV / 26 helpful votes

Her husband is known in the gates when he sits among the elders of the land.

Matthew 19:9 ESV / 25 helpful votes

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

Proverbs 31:11 ESV / 25 helpful votes

The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain.

1 Corinthians 13:1-13 ESV / 24 helpful votes

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 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. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. 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; ...

John 3:20 ESV / 24 helpful votes

For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.

Proverbs 31:25 ESV / 24 helpful votes

Strength and dignity are her clothing, and she laughs at the time to come.

Proverbs 31:24 ESV / 24 helpful votes

She makes linen garments and sells them; she delivers sashes to the merchant.

Galatians 3:28 ESV / 23 helpful votes

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Proverbs 31:13 ESV / 23 helpful votes

She seeks wool and flax, and works with willing hands.

1 Timothy 2:11-14 ESV / 22 helpful votes

Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness. I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet. For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.

Genesis 2:1-25 ESV / 22 helpful votes

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation. These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens. When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, ...

1 Corinthians 7:15 ESV / 21 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.

Proverbs 31:17 ESV / 21 helpful votes

She dresses herself with strength and makes her arms strong.

Proverbs 31:15 ESV / 21 helpful votes

She rises while it is yet night and provides food for her household and portions for her maidens.

Matthew 19:4-6 ESV / 20 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.”

Exodus 20:12 ESV / 20 helpful votes

“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

Genesis 1:27 ESV / 20 helpful votes

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

Ephesians 5:24 ESV / 19 helpful votes

Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.

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.”

Revelation 1:1-20 ESV / 18 helpful votes

The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near. John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood ...

1 Timothy 3:11 ESV / 18 helpful votes

Their wives likewise must be dignified, not slanderers, but sober-minded, faithful in all things.

1 Corinthians 7:14 ESV / 18 helpful votes

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.

1 Corinthians 7:4 ESV / 17 helpful votes

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.

Proverbs 31:29 ESV / 17 helpful votes

“Many women have done excellently, but you surpass them all.”

Proverbs 31:20 ESV / 17 helpful votes

She opens her hand to the poor and reaches out her hands to the needy.

1 Peter 3:1-2 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.

1 Peter 3:1-7 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, ...

1 Timothy 2:14 ESV / 16 helpful votes

And Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.

Matthew 5:32 ESV / 15 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.

Proverbs 31:22 ESV / 15 helpful votes

She makes bed coverings for herself; her clothing is fine linen and purple.

Proverbs 31:19 ESV / 15 helpful votes

She puts her hands to the distaff, and her hands hold the spindle.

Hebrews 13:17 ESV / 14 helpful votes

Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.

1 Corinthians 7:16 ESV / 14 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?

Colossians 1:1-29 ESV / 13 helpful votes

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father. We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, ...

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