100 Bible Verses about Spouse Abuse

Malachi 2:16 ESV / 33 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.”

Colossians 3:19 ESV / 32 helpful votes

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

1 Corinthians 7:15 ESV / 32 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.

Matthew 5:32 ESV / 30 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.

1 Peter 3:7 ESV / 29 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.

2 Timothy 3:1-8 ESV / 28 helpful votes

But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. ...

Proverbs 22:10 ESV / 28 helpful votes

Drive out a scoffer, and strife will go out, and quarreling and abuse will cease.

Psalm 11:5 ESV / 19 helpful votes

The Lord tests the righteous, but his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence.

Ephesians 4:29 ESV / 17 helpful votes

Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.

1 Corinthians 7:1-40 ESV / 17 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. ...

Ephesians 5:22 ESV / 16 helpful votes

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

Proverbs 10:11 ESV / 15 helpful votes

The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life, but the mouth of the wicked conceals violence.

Ephesians 5:25 ESV / 14 helpful votes

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

1 Corinthians 7:10-11 ESV / 14 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.

James 1:19-20 ESV / 13 helpful votes

Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.

Hebrews 13:4 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.

Ephesians 4:32 ESV / 12 helpful votes

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

Luke 16:18 ESV / 12 helpful votes

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

James 3:10 ESV / 11 helpful votes

From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so.

Hebrews 13:3 ESV / 11 helpful votes

Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body.

Galatians 5:19-21 ESV / 11 helpful votes

Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

1 Corinthians 7:12-16 ESV / 11 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?

Malachi 2:16-17 ESV / 11 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.” You have wearied the Lord with your words. But you say, “How have we wearied him?” By saying, “Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delights in them.” Or by asking, “Where is the God of justice?”

Psalm 72:14 ESV / 11 helpful votes

From oppression and violence he redeems their life, and precious is their blood in his sight.

Ephesians 4:31 ESV / 10 helpful votes

Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.

1 Corinthians 6:9-11 ESV / 10 helpful votes

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.

Matthew 18:15-17 ESV / 10 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. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.

1 John 1:9 ESV / 9 helpful votes

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

Romans 8:1 ESV / 9 helpful votes

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Matthew 19:8 ESV / 9 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 5:21-22 ESV / 9 helpful votes

“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.

Malachi 2:13-16 ESV / 9 helpful votes

And this second thing you do. You cover the Lord's altar with tears, with weeping and groaning because he no longer regards the offering or accepts it with favor from your hand. 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. “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.”

Proverbs 10:6 ESV / 9 helpful votes

Blessings are on the head of the righteous, but the mouth of the wicked conceals violence.

Psalm 103:6 ESV / 9 helpful votes

The Lord works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed.

Psalm 9:9 ESV / 9 helpful votes

The Lord is a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble.

Revelation 14:12 ESV / 8 helpful votes

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

James 3:17 ESV / 8 helpful votes

But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.

2 Thessalonians 3:6 ESV / 8 helpful votes

Now we command you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from any brother who is walking in idleness and not in accord with the tradition that you received from us.

Colossians 3:12-13 ESV / 8 helpful votes

Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.

Ephesians 6:4 ESV / 8 helpful votes

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

Ephesians 5:25-29 ESV / 8 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,

Ephesians 5:21 ESV / 8 helpful votes

Submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.

Ephesians 5:3-5 ESV / 8 helpful votes

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.

Galatians 6:1 ESV / 8 helpful votes

Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.

2 Corinthians 13:11 ESV / 8 helpful votes

Finally, brothers, rejoice. Aim for restoration, comfort one another, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 ESV / 8 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.

1 Corinthians 5:9-13 ESV / 8 helpful votes

I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.”

Romans 12:18 ESV / 8 helpful votes

If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.

John 13:34 ESV / 8 helpful votes

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.

Luke 14:26 ESV / 8 helpful votes

“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.

Zephaniah 1:9 ESV / 8 helpful votes

On that day I will punish everyone who leaps over the threshold, and those who fill their master's house with violence and fraud.

Proverbs 18:21 ESV / 8 helpful votes

Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits.

Psalm 140:12 ESV / 8 helpful votes

I know that the Lord will maintain the cause of the afflicted, and will execute justice for the needy.

Revelation 1:1-20 ESV / 7 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 John 3:1 ESV / 7 helpful votes

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.

2 Peter 1:7 ESV / 7 helpful votes

And godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.

1 Peter 3:8 ESV / 7 helpful votes

Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind.

James 1:26 ESV / 7 helpful votes

If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless.

Hebrews 12:12 ESV / 7 helpful votes

Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees,

2 Thessalonians 3:15 ESV / 7 helpful votes

Do not regard him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother.

Colossians 3:8 ESV / 7 helpful votes

But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.

Colossians 3:1-25 ESV / 7 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. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. ...

2 Corinthians 6:14 ESV / 7 helpful votes

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

2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV / 7 helpful votes

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

Psalm 146:7 ESV / 7 helpful votes

Who executes justice for the oppressed, who gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets the prisoners free;

2 Samuel 22:28 ESV / 7 helpful votes

You save a humble people, but your eyes are on the haughty to bring them down.

1 John 4:8 ESV / 6 helpful votes

Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

James 5:19-20 ESV / 6 helpful votes

My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

James 5:16 ESV / 6 helpful votes

Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.

James 4:7 ESV / 6 helpful votes

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

Hebrews 10:24 ESV / 6 helpful votes

And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,

Hebrews 10:24-25 ESV / 6 helpful votes

And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

2 Timothy 1:7 ESV / 6 helpful votes

For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.

1 Timothy 3:1-6 ESV / 6 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? ...

2 Thessalonians 3:14-15 ESV / 6 helpful votes

If anyone does not obey what we say in this letter, take note of that person, and have nothing to do with him, that he may be ashamed. Do not regard him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother.

1 Thessalonians 5:14 ESV / 6 helpful votes

And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all.

1 Thessalonians 5:11 ESV / 6 helpful votes

Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.

Colossians 3:18-21 ESV / 6 helpful votes

Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them. Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord. Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged.

Ephesians 4:29-32 ESV / 6 helpful votes

Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

Galatians 6:2 ESV / 6 helpful votes

Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

1 Corinthians 10:13 ESV / 6 helpful votes

No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 ESV / 6 helpful votes

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

1 Corinthians 6:1-3 ESV / 6 helpful votes

When one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints? Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases? Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life!

1 Corinthians 3:16-17 ESV / 6 helpful votes

Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple.

Mark 10:2-12 ESV / 6 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.’ ...

Matthew 22:1-46 ESV / 6 helpful votes

And again Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son, and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come. Again he sent other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, “See, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.”’ But they paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business, ...

Matthew 19:4-6 ESV / 6 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.”

Genesis 2:24 ESV / 6 helpful votes

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

1 John 3:18 ESV / 5 helpful votes

Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

Colossians 3:21 ESV / 5 helpful votes

Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged.

Ephesians 5:1-33 ESV / 5 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 5:1 ESV / 5 helpful votes

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.

1 Corinthians 7:39 ESV / 5 helpful votes

A wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband dies, she is free to be married to whom she wishes, only in the Lord.

Romans 15:14 ESV / 5 helpful votes

I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able to instruct one another.

Romans 7:2 ESV / 5 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 / 5 helpful votes

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

1 Corinthians 7:3 ESV / 4 helpful votes

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

1 Corinthians 7:1 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Now concerning the matters about which you wrote: “It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.”

Romans 14:19 ESV / 4 helpful votes

So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.

Romans 12:17-21 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Suggest a Verse


Visit the Bible online to search for words if you don’t know the specific passage your’re looking for.