By Larry N. Baker

Salvation is so grand that the Bible uses a number of terms and metaphors to illustrate it: eternal life, redemption, adoption, reconciliation, deliverance, regeneration, an inheritance, etc.  But the warmest, most beautiful, and most personal illustration that God uses for His wonderful salvation is that of Marriage — to be specific, The Marriage Covenant, and to be even more specific, The Traditional Jewish Marriage Covenant and procedures surrounding it.

This is the very imagery behind John 14:1-3, “Have not your heart be troubled.  You believe in God; believe also in me.  In my father’s house are many dwellings; and, if it were not so, I would have told you.  I go to prepare a place for you.  And, if I go and prepare a place for you, I am coming again and will take you close to myself, so that where I am you also may be.”

Thus, earthly marriage is a mirror-reflection of the Heavenly Marriage of the Bridegroom, Jesus Christ, with His Church, His Bride, in Rev. 19:11-20:14.  This analogy between these two covenants of marriage begins for us with the “betrothal” of salvation on earth.

In other words, marriage is the primary analogy that both reflects and illustrates the unconditional commitment of the covenantal relationship in eternal salvation, where God’s covenant of redemption and salvation between Him and believers in this life and eternity can be seen and understood by His covenant of the marriage between a man and woman in this temporal world.

The Jewish Marriage Procedure

In the days of Ancient Israel, a particular and detailed procedure of courtship and marriage was an integral part of Jewish social life; however it differs somewhat from what is commonly practiced today.  To begin with, the father in consultation with his wife and son would look for a prospective bride for his son, or for his daughter a prospective husband.  He would search and choose the one that, he believed, would be the best.  The wise and loving father would be close enough and sensitive to his son, so as to confer with him and work with him in this selection process.  In Genesis 24:8 and 58, there is a situation with Rebecca, in which she was asked about the proposed marriage to Isaac; and, only after she consented, did her family proceed with the plans.

Courtship and marriage were viewed as the united of two families by the Hebrews, so arrangements were initiated by the parents of the young man and the bride elect.  Marriage was a family matter.  The story of Ruth and Boaz in The Book of Ruth tells of a beautiful illustration of all this.  The matrimonial decision was a committee process with the person and his or her parents each having a loving, conservative, farsighted veto-power (that is, concerning whom not to marry, but not necessarily whom to marry – a very important distinction; this decision-making process today is so often misunderstood in two extremes that should be avoided:  the arranging of a marriage totally by the parents on the one extreme and totally by the child on the other extreme.)   The principle here was found in the Fifth Commandment to “honor your father and your mother” being applied to matrimony:  one must honor one’s father and mother in this most important decision in life.  This committee process was at the beginning “just friends” stage of a relationship before any emotional attachments began.  (Often, in any difference of opinion and judgment a matter of time would bring a resolution; by waiting each person involved would find more details about the others, where there is also room for change to occur on the part of each person.)

The first step in this courtship and marriage process was betrothal, where the young man and his father negotiate with the bride elect’s family and to decide on a “bridal price,” the most essential element in the process (Gen. 34:12; Exod. 22:16; 1 Sam. 18:25).  This bridal price was a determined amount that the son and his father were to pay the parents of the chosen bride.  This had nothing to do with a “purchasing” attitude, but rather the fact was that the Hebrews considered daughters of great value. For this the parents of the young woman were to be compensated.

Once the bridegroom paid this bridal price, a sacred and binding “betrothal covenant” was established and entered into by the son and his bride elect and their parents.  The betrothal ceremony was scheduled and took place before witnesses.  It was accompanied by vows with the exchange of an arrabon, such as rings, or other such items symbolizing a commitment.  The ring was regarded as a token of fidelity and of adoption into a family.  The moment that the covenant was established, a lifetime commitment went into force.  This commitment was based upon the simple promise of “keeping one’s word” to secure the marriage, as long as both live.  Any adultery or divorce involved simply the breaking of this binding promise and would become a loss of honor in the family. 

The bride was declared “sanctified,” that is, set apart exclusively for her bridegroom.  The couple would then drink from a cup over which a special “betrothal benediction” was pronounced.  Betrothal with the ancient Hebrews was more formal and binding than “engagement” is today. This betrothal covenant was described as meaning “to betroth a wife,” as a publicly binding legal act which, although not identical with marriage, enacts the marriage legally. So then, the covenant was to be for life and could only be broken or canceled by death or divorce!

Then there came a betrothal period for a full year (for virgins) or perhaps just a month (for widows in latter times).  This was a time of separation for the couple; however, before he left her, he would make a solemn promise to return and receive her as his bride. Unfaithfulness during this period of time would be considered adultery; this was the dilemma faced by Joseph concerning Mary in Matthew 1:19. In Joseph’s case, the angel explained Mary’s divine pregnancy, so as an espoused couple they quickly began wedded life together.  Often, a wedding of less significance than the betrothal.  So, as Mary continue to carry the baby Jesus and give birth to Him, Joseph and Mary were happily married[1] in Nazareth and began to make their way to Bethlehem.  Moses further explained that adultery during a marriage or even a betrothal was to be punished by death in Deuteronomy 22:23-24.

It was during this betrothal period that the bridegroom would build a bridal chamber at his father’s home.  Also, during this same time the bride would prepare her wedding dress and her clothes, linens, and the like for her future home.  During the meantime, she would often wear a veil to symbolize that she was “intended” for her bridegroom alone.

The father of the bridegroom then set the date of the wedding feast.  As this day approached, the exact day and hour of the bridegroom’s coming would be unknown by the bride and her virgin girlfriends.  They would be anxiously awaiting the day and the hour of the feast.  When the day arrived, the father of the bridegroom would tell his son to gather his friends together.  As they gathered together and waited for the appointed hour, his bride would be waiting at her parents’ home with her girlfriends.  They would be watching and waiting to hear the voice of her bridegroom.

At the time appointed by the young man’s father, he would tell his son, “Go, son, and get your bride and bring her home!”  For pageantry and excitement, this would often be done at night, even during the early morning hours passed midnight.  The son would leave his parents’ home with his friends, and in a torch-lit procession he would go to the home of his bride’s parents.  He would suddenly awaken the bride’s family and announce that he had come for his bride “to take her close to himself” and to take her back to his parents’ home.  There would then be a procession of the bridegroom carrying away his bride with a parade of friends carrying articles of furniture and decorations for their new home.

Since the “marriage feast” usually began in the evening, the house for the day was given over to the women who were busy arraying the bride with her white robe and veil and making everything ready for the wedding festivities.[2]  The wedding party members then escorted the bridegroom and the bride to the bridal chamber into which the bridegroom and the bride would go for a private, intimate time together. The bride would then remain there during the days of the marriage feast.  At the close of these days, he would bring her out with her veil removed for all to see. There was usually not a formal wedding ceremony per se, as is often done today, but a wedding feast or supper that lasted anywhere from one to seven days. After this would come a yearlong “honeymoon” during which the man was to be exempt from business and the military and to be home to bring happiness to his new wife (see Deuteronomy 24:5).  A general survey of ancient marriage procedures and custom shows that these detailed arrangements were not peculiar to Israel, but somewhat transcultural and common in centuries gone by.

The Parallels to Salvation

In John 14:1-3, Jesus assumed this understanding of betrothal and marriage in His explanation of a believer’s relationship to Him in salvation.  Salvation began with God, the Father. It is He who in salvation elected and “chose us in him [i.e., in Christ] before the foundation of the world, for us to be holy and blameless in love . . . “ (Ephesians 1:4). 

Then on the cross the purchase price for Christ’s bride, the church, was determined and paid.  However, believers “were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, . . . but with the precious blood of Christ . . . “ (1 Peter 1:18-19).

Salvation begins with the regenerating ministry of the Holy Spirit, when a person repents of his sins and puts his faith in Jesus Christ as Lord.  At that point, the Holy Spirit permanently indwells and seals the believer as “a pledge of our inheritance...” (Ephesians 1:14).  In this passage Paul used the betrothal term, arrabon, for the Holy Spirit as this “pledge.”  In Matthew 10:32, Jesus spoke of this in the importance of confessing Him (and one’s salvation) before others who thus serve as witnesses of this “betrothal to Christ,” of which water baptism serves as a symbol.

At this present time in history, believers as a part of the Church are in the “betrothal stage” of God’s plan through the ages.  Paul described how he had brought the gospel of this salvation to the Corinthians and wrote in 1 Corinthians 11:2, “For I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.”   Paul used the word, arrabon, in Eph. 1:14, as a “guarantee of our inheritance.”  The term specifically is used for a “non-redeemable down payment of our inheritance.”  Paul explained how this is used regarding the Holy Spirit’s indwelling and sealing of believers in the Church.  Just as the bridegroom would bestow gifts upon the bride during this betrothal period, so Christ gave special spiritual gifts to the Church, as described in Rom. 12:6-8 and 1 Cor. 12.  In Jewish tradition, this betrothal period was referred to by a Hebrew word for “sanctification.”  It was a time where the bride and bridegroom were being prepared in their sanctification for one another.  This is what Christ is presently doing with His Church.

This betrothal is eternally secure.  Since according to Malachi 2:16 God hates divorce, a true believer’s salvation can never be lost. Believers are chosen by God and are presently awaiting the voice of their Bridegroom, Jesus Christ, at His coming for His Bride, the Church, at The Rapture, as described in 1 Thessalonians 4:17.

The exact length of this betrothal period has remained unrevealed.  However, during this indefinite period of time, there has been and is a separation which Jesus has had between Him and His Bride, but His intent is “that he might sanctify her [that is, to set her apart as holy] after cleansing her by the washing of the water in the word, in order that he might present her, the Church, as glorious to himself, by not having any blemish or wrinkle or any of such things, but in order that she might be holy and blameless” (Ephesians 5:26-27).  Even the Lord’s Supper symbolizes with “the cup” the anticipation of Christ’s coming for His Bride, when he stated in Matthew 26:29, “ . . . I will never drink from now on of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it with you anew in the kingdom of my father.” But at the appointed time, God the Father will tell His son, Jesus Christ, “Go, Son, and get your Bride, The Church, and bring her home to glory!”  This is what Paul wrote of in Titus 2:13, “anticipating the blessed hope and appearance of glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.”  Just as with the coming of the Jewish bridegroom, there will be a shout of the voice of an archangel (1 Thessalonians 4:16).

After the Rapture, the Church will be a part of “the marriage supper of the Lamb” that is described in Revelation 19:6-9.  Just as the wedding party was made up also of the friends of the bridegroom, Christ and His Church will be greeted and escorted by the resurrected believers through the ages, who had gone on to be with the Lord prior to Pentecost in Acts 2, when The Church Age began.  The believers living then during that Pentecost and from Acts 2 on were brought into God’s plan to become a part of the Church.  This marriage supper of the Lamb will take place in Heaven for seven years, (paralleling the typical seven days of a Jewish marriage feast celebration).  During this same seven years, there will be a terrible “Tribulation” here on earth.  This is described in great detail in Revelation 6-18.

Then, at the close of this seven-year period, Christ will come back to earth with His chosen Bride, the Church, along with “the friends of the Bridegroom.” These are the ones described earlier, who are the other resurrected believers who died during the days of the Old Testament and the Gospels prior to Pentecost in Acts 2 and during the days of the yet future seven-year Jewish Tribulation.  All of these will reign with Christ 1,000 years in His Messianic kingdom described in Revelation 20:4-6.  This last period of time parallels the year-long “honeymoon” described in Deuteronomy 24:5.

In This Parallel between Marriage and Salvation, Understanding One Helps in Understanding the Other

Many things in marriage help a believer to better understand the relationship to Jesus Christ that he or she has in salvation.  On the other hand, many things in salvation help a believer to understand marriage better.  This is described so beautifully in Ephesians 5:21-32; Colossians 3:18-19; 1 Corinthians 11:2, 10-11; and The Song of Solomon.

Salvation is a relationship to God through Jesus Christ, a close relationship.  Marriage helps us to see what a “relationship” is all about and to understand how to be “other-centered” instead of self-centered in a relationship.  A godly husband’s love for his wife can help him picture Christ’s love for His Church.  But also Christ’s love serves as a wonderful example for husbands (and fathers).  A wife’s godly submissiveness to her husband can demonstrate the type of submissiveness that believers are to have toward Jesus as their Lord.  The parallels are not perfect but are very instructive, enlightening, and meaningful. It is interesting to notice how many Christians of late speak of their walk with the Lord Jesus Christ, as “an intimate, personal relationship.”  This expression is popularly used in two situations only:  marriage and salvation.[3]

Commitment is the whole basis of salvation and of marriage.  Both involve promises on both sides, and such promises are to be kept no matter what the future may hold.  A promise is a promise.  As such, genuine regeneration and salvation involve a promise of commitment that cannot be broken. Similarly, marriage involves a promise of commitment that cannot be broken. Marriages are made better by a willingness to change and be changed for the good, to become closer to another person, and to keep on working at the relationship.  This also makes salvation more meaningful and fulfilling. 

The next most important thing in this life to be saved is understanding marriage and avoiding fornication and adultery. You do not have to be saved to be married, and you do not have to be married to be saved. But you do have to take marriage seriously to understand the saving faith of salvation, as an unconditional commitment within a relationship of faithfulness to someone else.

From the Garden of Eden on, God arranged a special relationship called marriage with all of its special procedures and features.  The more one studies and discovers the details of marriage, especially in its early Hebrew setting, the more one will find how wonderful and glorious salvation really is.  It all begins with a decision of repentance of sins and a commitment of faith in Jesus Christ, as one’s Savior, Lord, and Bridegroom.

Genesis 1:26-27   26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”  27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

Genesis 2:21-24   21 And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh in its place.  22 Then the rib which the LORD God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man.  23 And Adam said: “This is now bone of my bones And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man.”  24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

Genesis 3:15-16  15 And I will put enmity between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.”  16 To the woman He said: “I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; In pain you shall bring forth children; Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.”

Genesis 4:1   Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, and said, “I have acquired a man from the LORD.”

Exodus 19:5-6  5 ‘Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine.  6 ‘And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel.”

Exodus 19:23   23 But Moses said to the LORD, “The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai; for You warned us, saying, ‘Set bounds around the mountain and consecrate it.’ “

Leviticus 17:7   7 “They shall no more offer their sacrifices to demons, after whom they have played the harlot. This shall be a statute forever for them throughout their generations.” ‘

Leviticus 20:4-6   4 ‘And if the people of the land should in any way hide their eyes from the man, when he gives some of his descendants to Molech, and they do not kill him,  5 ‘then I will set My face against that man and against his family; and I will cut him off from his people, and all who prostitute themselves with him to commit harlotry with Molech.  6 ‘ And the person who turns to mediums and familiar spirits, to prostitute himself with them, I will set My face against that person and cut him off from his people.

Leviticus 20:10   10 ‘The man who commits adultery with another man’s wife, he who commits adultery with his neighbor’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress, shall surely be put to death.

Numbers 15:37-40   37 Again the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,  38 “Speak to the children of Israel: Tell them to make tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and to put a blue thread in the tassels of the corners.  39 “And you shall have the tassel, that you may look upon it and remember all the commandments of the LORD and do them, and that you may not follow the harlotry to which your own heart and your own eyes are inclined, 40 “and that you may remember and do all My commandments, and be holy for your God.

Numbers 25:1-3  1Now Israel remained in Acacia Grove, and the people began to commit harlotry with the women of Moab.  2 They invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods.  3 So Israel was joined to Baal of Peor, and the anger of the LORD was aroused against Israel.

Judges 2:17  17 Yet they would not listen to their judges, but they played the harlot with other gods, and bowed down to them. They turned quickly from the way in which their fathers walked, in obeying the commandments of the LORD; they did not do so.

Judges 8:27  27 Then Gideon made it into an ephod and set it up in his city, Ophrah. And all Israel played the harlot with it there. It became a snare to Gideon and to his house.

Judges 8:33-34  33 So it was, as soon as Gideon was dead, that the children of Israel again played the harlot with the Baals, and made Baal-Berith their god.  34 Thus the children of Israel did not remember the LORD their God, who had delivered them from the hands of all their enemies on every side;

1 Chronicles 5:25   25 And they were unfaithful to the God of their fathers, and played the harlot after the gods of the peoples of the land, whom God had destroyed before them.

2 Chronicles 21:9-15   9 So Jehoram went out with his officers, and all his chariots with him. And he rose by night and attacked the Edomites who had surrounded him and the captains of the chariots.  10 Thus Edom has been in revolt against Judah’s authority to this day. At that time Libnah revolted against his rule, because he had forsaken the LORD God of his fathers.  11 Moreover he made high places in the mountains of Judah, and caused the inhabitants of Jerusalem to commit harlotry, and led Judah astray.  12 And a letter came to him from Elijah the prophet, saying, Thus says the LORD God of your father David: Because you have not walked in the ways of Jehoshaphat your father, or in the ways of Asa king of Judah,  13 but have walked in the way of the kings of Israel, and have made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to play the harlot like the harlotry of the house of Ahab, and also have killed your brothers, those of your father’s household, who were better than yourself,  14 behold, the LORD will strike your people with a serious affliction -- your children, your wives, and all your possessions;  15 and you will become very sick with a disease of your intestines, until your intestines come out by reason of the sickness, day by day.

Psalm 45:9-10   9 Kings’ daughters are among Your honorable women; At Your right hand stands the queen in gold from Ophir.  10 Listen, O daughter, Consider and incline your ear; Forget your own people also, and your father’s house; 

Psalm 73:27-28   27 For indeed, those who are far from You shall perish; You have destroyed all those who desert You for harlotry.  28 But it is good for me to draw near to God; I have put my trust in the Lord GOD, That I may declare all Your works.

Psalm 106:36-39   36 They served their idols, Which became a snare to them.  37 They even sacrificed their sons And their daughters to demons,  38 And shed innocent blood, The blood of their sons and daughters, Whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan; And the land was polluted with blood.  39 Thus they were defiled by their own works, And played the harlot by their own deeds. 

Proverbs 2:16-17   16 To deliver you from the immoral woman, From the seductress who flatters with her words, 17 Who forsakes the companion of her youth, And forgets the covenant of her God.

Proverbs 6:26-35  26 For by means of a harlot A man is reduced to a crust of bread; And an adulteress will prey upon his precious life.  27 Can a man take fire to his bosom, And his clothes not be burned?  28 Can one walk on hot coals, And his feet not be seared?  29 So is he who goes in to his neighbor’s wife; Whoever touches her shall not be innocent.  30 People do not despise a thief If he steals to satisfy himself when he is starving.  31 Yet when he is found, he must restore sevenfold; He may have to give up all the substance of his house.  32 Whoever commits adultery with a woman lacks understanding; He who does so destroys his own soul.  33 Wounds and dishonor he will get, And his reproach will not be wiped away.  34 For jealousy is a husband’s fury; Therefore he will not spare in the day of vengeance.  35 He will accept no recompense, Nor will he be appeased though you give many gifts.

Isaiah 37:21-23  21 Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says the LORD God of Israel, ‘Because you have prayed to Me against Sennacherib king of Assyria,  22 ‘this is the word which the LORD has spoken concerning him: “The virgin, the daughter of Zion, Has despised you, laughed you to scorn; The daughter of Jerusalem Has shaken her head behind your back!  23 “Whom have you reproached and blasphemed? Against whom have you raised your voice, And lifted up your eyes on high? Against the Holy One of Israel.

Isaiah 50:1-3  1Thus says the LORD: “Where is the certificate of your mother’s divorce, Whom I have put away? Or which of My creditors is it to whom I have sold you? For your iniquities you have sold yourselves, And for your transgressions your mother has been put away.  2 Why, when I came, was there no man? Why, when I called, was there none to answer? Is My hand shortened at all that it cannot redeem? Or have I no power to deliver? Indeed with My rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness; Their fish stink because there is no water, And die of thirst.  3 I clothe the heavens with blackness, And I make sackcloth their covering.” 

Isaiah 54:5  For your Maker is your husband, The LORD of hosts is His name; And your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel; He is called the God of the whole earth.

Isaiah 54:6   6 For the LORD has called you Like a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, Like a youthful wife when you were refused,” Says your God.

Isaiah 57:2-3   2 He shall enter into peace; They shall rest in their beds, Each one walking in his uprightness.  3 “ But come here, You sons of the sorceress, You offspring of the adulterer and the harlot!

Isaiah 62:4-5   4 You shall no longer be termed Forsaken, Nor shall your land any more be termed Desolate; But you shall be called Hephzibah, and your land Beulah; For the LORD delights in you, And your land shall be married.  5 For as a young man marries a virgin, So shall your sons marry you; And as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, So shall your God rejoice over you.

Jeremiah 2:2   2 “Go and cry in the hearing of Jerusalem, saying, ‘Thus says the LORD: “I remember you, The kindness of your youth, The love of your betrothal, When you went after Me in the wilderness, In a land not sown.

Jeremiah 2:31-33  31 “O generation, see the word of the LORD! Have I been a wilderness to Israel, Or a land of darkness? Why do My people say, ‘We are lords; We will come no more to You’?  32 Can a virgin forget her ornaments, Or a bride her attire? Yet My people have forgotten Me days without number.  33 “Why do you beautify your way to seek love? Therefore you have also taught The wicked women your ways.

Jeremiah 3:1-20  1”They say, ‘If a man divorces his wife, And she goes from him And becomes another man’s, May he return to her again?’ Would not that land be greatly polluted? But you have played the harlot with many lovers; Yet return to Me,” says the LORD.  2 “Lift up your eyes to the desolate heights and see: Where have you not lain with men? By the road you have sat for them Like an Arabian in the wilderness; And you have polluted the land With your harlotries and your wickedness.  3 Therefore the showers have been withheld, And there has been no latter rain. You have had a harlot’s forehead; You refuse to be ashamed.  4 Will you not from this time cry to Me, ‘My father, You are the guide of my youth?  5 Will He remain angry forever? Will He keep it to the end?’ Behold, you have spoken and done evil things, As you were able.”  6 The LORD said also to me in the days of Josiah the king: “Have you seen what backsliding Israel has done? She has gone up on every high mountain and under every green tree, and there played the harlot.  7 “And I said, after she had done all these things, ‘Return to Me.’ But she did not return. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it.  8 “Then I saw that for all the causes for which backsliding Israel had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a certificate of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but went and played the harlot also.  9 “So it came to pass, through her casual harlotry, that she defiled the land and committed adultery with stones and trees.  10 “And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah has not turned to Me with her whole heart, but in pretense,” says the LORD.  11 Then the LORD said to me, “Backsliding Israel has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah.  12 “Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say: ‘Return, backsliding Israel,’ says the LORD; ‘I will not cause My anger to fall on you. For I am merciful,’ says the LORD; ‘I will not remain angry forever.  13 Only acknowledge your iniquity, That you have transgressed against the LORD your God, And have scattered your charms to alien deities under every green tree, And you have not obeyed My voice,’ says the LORD.  14 “Return, O backsliding children,” says the LORD; “for I am married to you. I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion.  15 “And I will give you shepherds according to My heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.  16 “Then it shall come to pass, when you are multiplied and increased in the land in those days,” says the LORD, “that they will say no more, ‘The ark of the covenant of the LORD.’ It shall not come to mind, nor shall they remember it, nor shall they visit it, nor shall it be made anymore.  17 “At that time Jerusalem shall be called The Throne of the LORD, and all the nations shall be gathered to it, to the name of the LORD, to Jerusalem. No more shall they follow the dictates of their evil hearts.  18 “In those days the house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel, and they shall come together out of the land of the north to the land that I have given as an inheritance to your fathers.  19 “ But I said: ‘How can I put you among the children And give you a pleasant land, A beautiful heritage of the hosts of nations?’ “ And I said: ‘You shall call Me, “My Father,” And not turn away from Me.’  20 Surely, as a wife treacherously departs from her husband, So have you dealt treacherously with Me, O house of Israel,” says the LORD.

Jeremiah 5:7-8   7 “ How shall I pardon you for this? Your children have forsaken Me And sworn by those that are not gods. When I had fed them to the full, Then they committed adultery And assembled themselves by troops in the harlots’ houses.  8 They were like well-fed lusty stallions; Every one neighed after his neighbor’s wife.

Jeremiah 7:8-10   8 “ Behold, you trust in lying words that cannot profit.  9 “Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods whom you do not know,  10 “and then come and stand before Me in this house which is called by My name, and say, ‘We are delivered to do all these abominations’?

Jeremiah 7:34  34 “Then I will cause to cease from the cities of Judah and from the streets of Jerusalem the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride. For the land shall be desolate.

Jeremiah 9:2-3   2 Oh, that I had in the wilderness A lodging place for travelers; That I might leave my people, And go from them! For they are all adulterers, An assembly of treacherous men.  3 “And like their bow they have bent their tongues for lies. They are not valiant for the truth on the earth. For they proceed from evil to evil, And they do not know Me,” says the LORD.

Jeremiah 13:25-27   25 This is your lot, The portion of your measures from Me,” says the LORD, “Because you have forgotten Me And trusted in falsehood. 26 Therefore I will uncover your skirts over your face, That your shame may appear.  27 I have seen your adulteries And your lustful neighings, The lewdness of your harlotry, Your abominations on the hills in the fields. Woe to you, O Jerusalem! Will you still not be made clean?”

Jeremiah 14:15-17   15 “Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the prophets who prophesy in My name, whom I did not send, and who say, ‘Sword and famine shall not be in this land’ -- ‘By sword and famine those prophets shall be consumed!  16 ‘And the people to whom they prophesy shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword; they will have no one to bury them -- them nor their wives, their sons nor their daughters -- for I will pour their wickedness on them.’  17 “ Therefore you shall say this word to them: ‘Let my eyes flow with tears night and day, And let them not cease; For the virgin daughter of my people Has been broken with a mighty stroke, with a very severe blow.

Jeremiah 16:6-9   6 “Both the great and the small shall die in this land. They shall not be buried; neither shall men lament for them, cut themselves, nor make themselves bald for them.  7 “Nor shall men break bread in mourning for them, to comfort them for the dead; nor shall men give them the cup of consolation to drink for their father or their mother.  8 “Also you shall not go into the house of feasting to sit with them, to eat and drink.”  9 For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: “Behold, I will cause to cease from this place, before your eyes and in your days, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride

Jeremiah 18:11-13   11 “ Now therefore, speak to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, ‘Thus says the LORD: “Behold, I am fashioning a disaster and devising a plan against you. Return now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good.” ‘ “  12 And they said, “That is hopeless! So we will walk according to our own plans, and we will every one obey the dictates of his evil heart.”  13 Therefore thus says the LORD: “Ask now among the Gentiles, Who has heard such things? The virgin of Israel has done a very horrible thing.

Jeremiah 23:9-15  9 My heart within me is broken Because of the prophets; All my bones shake. I am like a drunken man, And like a man whom wine has overcome, Because of the LORD, And because of His holy words. 10 For the land is full of adulterers; For because of a curse the land mourns. The pleasant places of the wilderness are dried up. Their course of life is evil, And their might is not right.  11 “ For both prophet and priest are profane; Yes, in My house I have found their wickedness,” says the LORD.  12 “Therefore their way shall be to them Like slippery ways; In the darkness they shall be driven on And fall in them; For I will bring disaster on them, The year of their punishment,” says the LORD.  13 “And I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria: They prophesied by Baal And caused My people Israel to err.  14 Also I have seen a horrible thing in the prophets of Jerusalem: They commit adultery and walk in lies; They also strengthen the hands of evildoers, So that no one turns back from his wickedness. All of them are like Sodom to Me, And her inhabitants like Gomorrah.  15 “Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts concerning the prophets: ‘Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, And make them drink the water of gall; For from the prophets of Jerusalem Profaneness has gone out into all the land.’ “ 

Jeremiah 25:8-12   8 “ Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts: ‘Because you have not heard My words,  9 ‘behold, I will send and take all the families of the north,’ says the LORD, ‘and Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, My servant, and will bring them against this land, against its inhabitants, and against these nations all around, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, a hissing, and perpetual desolations.  10 ‘Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones and the light of the lamp.  11 ‘And this whole land shall be a desolation and an astonishment, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.  12 ‘ Then it will come to pass, when seventy years are completed, that I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity,’ says the LORD; ‘and I will make it a perpetual desolation.

Jeremiah 29:22-23   22 And because of them a curse shall be taken up by all the captivity of Judah who are in Babylon, saying, “The LORD make you like Zedekiah and Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire”; 23 because they have done disgraceful things in Israel, have committed adultery with their neighbors’ wives, and have spoken lying words in My name, which I have not commanded them. Indeed I know, and am a witness, says the LORD.

Jeremiah 31:17-22  17 There is hope in your future, says the LORD, That your children shall come back to their own border.  18 “ I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself: ‘You have chastised me, and I was chastised, Like an untrained bull; Restore me, and I will return, For You are the LORD my God.  19 Surely, after my turning, I repented; And after I was instructed, I struck myself on the thigh; I was ashamed, yes, even humiliated, Because I bore the reproach of my youth.’  20 Is Ephraim My dear son? Is he a pleasant child? For though I spoke against him, I earnestly remember him still; Therefore My heart yearns for him; I will surely have mercy on him, says the LORD. 21 “ Set up signposts, Make landmarks; Set your heart toward the highway, The way in which you went. Turn back, O virgin of Israel, Turn back to these your cities.  22 How long will you gad about, O you backsliding daughter? For the LORD has created a new thing in the earth -- A woman shall encompass a man.”

Jeremiah 31:31-32   31 “ Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah --  32 “not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the LORD.

Jeremiah 33:10-11  10 “ Thus says the LORD: ‘Again there shall be heard in this place -- of which you say, “It is desolate, without man and without beast” -- in the cities of Judah, in the streets of Jerusalem that are desolate, without man and without inhabitant and without beast,  11 ‘the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voice of those who will say: “Praise the LORD of hosts, For the LORD is good, For His mercy endures forever” -- and of those who will bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the LORD. For I will cause the captives of the land to return as at the first,’ says the LORD.

 Lamentations 1:15   15 “The Lord has trampled underfoot all my mighty men in my midst; He has called an assembly against me To crush my young men; The Lord trampled as in a winepress The virgin daughter of Judah.

Lamentations 2:13   13 How shall I console you? To what shall I liken you, O daughter of Jerusalem? What shall I compare with you, that I may comfort you, O virgin daughter of Zion? For your ruin is spread wide as the sea; Who can heal you? 

Ezekiel 6:7-10   7 “The slain shall fall in your midst, and you shall know that I am the LORD.  8 “ Yet I will leave a remnant, so that you may have some who escape the sword among the nations, when you are scattered through the countries.  9 “Then those of you who escape will remember Me among the nations where they are carried captive, because I was crushed by their adulterous heart which has departed from Me, and by their eyes which play the harlot after their idols; they will loathe themselves for the evils which they committed in all their abominations.  10 “And they shall know that I am the LORD; I have not said in vain that I would bring this calamity upon them.”

Ezekiel 16:14-44   14 “Your fame went out among the nations because of your beauty, for it was perfect through My splendor which I had bestowed on you,” says the Lord GOD.  15 “ But you trusted in your own beauty, played the harlot because of your fame, and poured out your harlotry on everyone passing by who would have it.  16 “You took some of your garments and adorned multicolored high places for yourself, and played the harlot on them. Such things should not happen, nor be.  17 “You have also taken your beautiful jewelry from My gold and My silver, which I had given you, and made for yourself male images and played the harlot with them.  18 “You took your embroidered garments and covered them, and you set My oil and My incense before them.  19 “Also My food which I gave you -- the pastry of fine flour, oil, and honey which I fed you -- you set it before them as sweet incense; and so it was,” says the Lord GOD.  20 “Moreover you took your sons and your daughters, whom you bore to Me, and these you sacrificed to them to be devoured. Were your acts of harlotry a small matter,  21 “that you have slain My children and offered them up to them by causing them to pass through the fire?  22 “And in all your abominations and acts of harlotry you did not remember the days of your youth, when you were naked and bare, struggling in your blood.  23 “ Then it was so, after all your wickedness -- ‘Woe, woe to you!’ says the Lord GOD --  24 “that you also built for yourself a shrine, and made a high place for yourself in every street.  25 “You built your high places at the head of every road, and made your beauty to be abhorred. You offered yourself to everyone who passed by, and multiplied your acts of harlotry.  26 “You also committed harlotry with the Egyptians, your very fleshly neighbors, and increased your acts of harlotry to provoke Me to anger.  27 “Behold, therefore, I stretched out My hand against you, diminished your allotment, and gave you up to the will of those who hate you, the daughters of the Philistines, who were ashamed of your lewd behavior.  28 “You also played the harlot with the Assyrians, because you were insatiable; indeed you played the harlot with them and still were not satisfied.  29 “Moreover you multiplied your acts of harlotry as far as the land of the trader, Chaldea; and even then you were not satisfied.  30 “How degenerate is your heart!” says the Lord GOD, “seeing you do all these things, the deeds of a brazen harlot.  31 “ You erected your shrine at the head of every road, and built your high place in every street. Yet you were not like a harlot, because you scorned payment.  32 “You are an adulterous wife, who takes strangers instead of her husband.  33 “Men make payment to all harlots, but you made your payments to all your lovers, and hired them to come to you from all around for your harlotry. 34 “You are the opposite of other women in your harlotry, because no one solicited you to be a harlot. In that you gave payment but no payment was given you, therefore you are the opposite.”  35 ‘ Now then, O harlot, hear the word of the LORD!  36 ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: “Because your filthiness was poured out and your nakedness uncovered in your harlotry with your lovers, and with all your abominable idols, and because of the blood of your children which you gave to them,  37 “surely, therefore, I will gather all your lovers with whom you took pleasure, all those you loved, and all those you hated; I will gather them from all around against you and will uncover your nakedness to them, that they may see all your nakedness.  38 “And I will judge you as women who break wedlock or shed blood are judged; I will bring blood upon you in fury and jealousy.  39 “I will also give you into their hand, and they shall throw down your shrines and break down your high places. They shall also strip you of your clothes, take your beautiful jewelry, and leave you naked and bare.  40 “They shall also bring up an assembly against you, and they shall stone you with stones and thrust you through with their swords.  41 “They shall burn your houses with fire, and execute judgments on you in the sight of many women; and I will make you cease playing the harlot, and you shall no longer hire lovers.  42 “So I will lay to rest My fury toward you, and My jealousy shall depart from you. I will be quiet, and be angry no more. 43 “Because you did not remember the days of your youth, but agitated Me with all these things, surely I will also recompense your deeds on your own head,” says the Lord GOD. “And you shall not commit lewdness in addition to all your abominations. 44 “ Indeed everyone who quotes proverbs will use this proverb against you: ‘Like mother, like daughter!’

Ezekiel 20:27-31   27 “ Therefore, son of man, speak to the house of Israel, and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: “In this too your fathers have blasphemed Me, by being unfaithful to Me.  28 “When I brought them into the land concerning which I had raised My hand in an oath to give them, and they saw all the high hills and all the thick trees, there they offered their sacrifices and provoked Me with their offerings. There they also sent up their sweet aroma and poured out their drink offerings.  29 “Then I said to them, ‘What is this high place to which you go?’ So its name is called Bamah to this day.” ‘  30 “Therefore say to the house of Israel, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: “Are you defiling yourselves in the manner of your fathers, and committing harlotry according to their abominations?  31 “For when you offer your gifts and make your sons pass through the fire, you defile yourselves with all your idols, even to this day. So shall I be inquired of by you, O house of Israel? As I live,” says the Lord GOD, “I will not be inquired of by you.

Ezekiel 23:2-49   2 “Son of man, there were two women, The daughters of one mother.  3 They committed harlotry in Egypt, They committed harlotry in their youth; Their breasts were there embraced, Their virgin bosom was there pressed. 4 Their names: Oholah the elder and Oholibah her sister; They were Mine, And they bore sons and daughters. As for their names, Samaria is Oholah, and Jerusalem is Oholibah.  5 “ Oholah played the harlot even though she was Mine; And she lusted for her lovers, the neighboring Assyrians,  6 Who were clothed in purple, Captains and rulers, All of them desirable young men, Horsemen riding on horses.  7 Thus she committed her harlotry with them, All of them choice men of Assyria; And with all for whom she lusted, With all their idols, she defiled herself.  8 She has never given up her harlotry brought from Egypt, For in her youth they had lain with her, Pressed her virgin bosom, And poured out their immorality upon her.  9 “Therefore I have delivered her Into the hand of her lovers, Into the hand of the Assyrians, For whom she lusted.  10 They uncovered her nakedness, Took away her sons and daughters, And slew her with the sword; She became a byword among women, For they had executed judgment on her.  11 “ Now although her sister Oholibah saw this, she became more corrupt in her lust than she, and in her harlotry more corrupt than her sister’s harlotry.  12 “She lusted for the neighboring Assyrians, Captains and rulers, Clothed most gorgeously, Horsemen riding on horses, All of them desirable young men. 13 Then I saw that she was defiled; Both took the same way.  14 But she increased her harlotry; She looked at men portrayed on the wall, Images of Chaldeans portrayed in vermilion,  15 Girded with belts around their waists, Flowing turbans on their heads, All of them looking like captains, In the manner of the Babylonians of Chaldea, The land of their nativity.  16 As soon as her eyes saw them, She lusted for them And sent messengers to them in Chaldea.  17 “Then the Babylonians came to her, into the bed of love, And they defiled her with their immorality; So she was defiled by them, and alienated herself from them.  18 She revealed her harlotry and uncovered her nakedness. Then I alienated Myself from her, As I had alienated Myself from her sister.  19 “Yet she multiplied her harlotry In calling to remembrance the days of her youth, When she had played the harlot in the land of Egypt.  20 For she lusted for her paramours, Whose flesh is like the flesh of donkeys, And whose issue is like the issue of horses.  21 Thus you called to remembrance the lewdness of your youth, When the Egyptians pressed your bosom Because of your youthful breasts.  22 “ Therefore, Oholibah, thus says the Lord GOD: ‘Behold, I will stir up your lovers against you, From whom you have alienated yourself, And I will bring them against you from every side:  23 The Babylonians, All the Chaldeans, Pekod, Shoa, Koa, All the Assyrians with them, All of them desirable young men, Governors and rulers, Captains and men of renown, All of them riding on horses.  24 And they shall come against you With chariots, wagons, and war-horses, With a horde of people. They shall array against you Buckler, shield, and helmet all around. ‘I will delegate judgment to them, And they shall judge you according to their judgments.  25 I will set My jealousy against you, And they shall deal furiously with you; They shall remove your nose and your ears, And your remnant shall fall by the sword; They shall take your sons and your daughters, And your remnant shall be devoured by fire.  26 They shall also strip you of your clothes And take away your beautiful jewelry.  27 ‘Thus I will make you cease your lewdness and your harlotry Brought from the land of Egypt, So that you will not lift your eyes to them, Nor remember Egypt anymore.’  28 “For thus says the Lord GOD: ‘Surely I will deliver you into the hand of those you hate, into the hand of those from whom you alienated yourself.  29 ‘They will deal hatefully with you, take away all you have worked for, and leave you naked and bare. The nakedness of your harlotry shall be uncovered, both your lewdness and your harlotry.  30 ‘I will do these things to you because you have gone as a harlot after the Gentiles, because you have become defiled by their idols.  31 ‘You have walked in the way of your sister; therefore I will put her cup in your hand.’  32 “ Thus says the Lord GOD: ‘You shall drink of your sister’s cup, The deep and wide one; You shall be laughed to scorn And held in derision; It contains much.  33 You will be filled with drunkenness and sorrow, The cup of horror and desolation, The cup of your sister Samaria.  34 You shall drink and drain it, You shall break its shards, And tear at your own breasts; For I have spoken,’ Says the Lord GOD.  35 “Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: ‘Because you have forgotten Me and cast Me behind your back, Therefore you shall bear the penalty Of your lewdness and your harlotry.’ “  36 The LORD also said to me: “Son of man, will you judge Oholah and Oholibah? Then declare to them their abominations.  37 “For they have committed adultery, and blood is on their hands. They have committed adultery with their idols, and even sacrificed their sons whom they bore to Me, passing them through the fire, to devour them.  38 “Moreover they have done this to Me: They have defiled My sanctuary on the same day and profaned My Sabbaths.  39 “For after they had slain their children for their idols, on the same day they came into My sanctuary to profane it; and indeed thus they have done in the midst of My house.  40 “Furthermore you sent for men to come from afar, to whom a messenger was sent; and there they came. And you washed yourself for them, painted your eyes, and adorned yourself with ornaments.  41 “You sat on a stately couch, with a table prepared before it, on which you had set My incense and My oil.  42 “The sound of a carefree multitude was with her, and Sabeans were brought from the wilderness with men of the common sort, who put bracelets on their wrists and beautiful crowns on their heads. 43 “Then I said concerning her who had grown old in adulteries, ‘Will they commit harlotry with her now, and she with them?’  44 “Yet they went in to her, as men go in to a woman who plays the harlot; thus they went in to Oholah and Oholibah, the lewd women.  45 “But righteous men will judge them after the manner of adulteresses, and after the manner of women who shed blood, because they are adulteresses, and blood is on their hands.  46 “ For thus says the Lord GOD: ‘Bring up an assembly against them, give them up to trouble and plunder.  47 ‘The assembly shall stone them with stones and execute them with their swords; they shall slay their sons and their daughters, and burn their houses with fire.  48 ‘Thus I will cause lewdness to cease from the land, that all women may be taught not to practice your lewdness.  49 ‘They shall repay you for your lewdness, and you shall pay for your idolatrous sins. Then you shall know that I am the Lord GOD.’ “

Ezekiel 43:7-10  7 And He said to me, “Son of man, this is the place of My throne and the place of the soles of My feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel forever. No more shall the house of Israel defile My holy name, they nor their kings, by their harlotry or with the carcasses of their kings on their high places.  8 “When they set their threshold by My threshold, and their doorpost by My doorpost, with a wall between them and Me, they defiled My holy name by the abominations which they committed; therefore I have consumed them in My anger. 9 “Now let them put their harlotry and the carcasses of their kings far away from Me, and I will dwell in their midst forever.  10 “ Son of man, describe the temple to the house of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their iniquities; and let them measure the pattern.

Hosea 2:1-7  1Say to your brethren, ‘My people,’ And to your sisters, ‘Mercy is shown.’ 2 “ Bring charges against your mother, bring charges; For she is not My wife, nor am I her Husband! Let her put away her harlotries from her sight, And her adulteries from between her breasts;  3 Lest I strip her naked And expose her, as in the day she was born, And make her like a wilderness, And set her like a dry land, And slay her with thirst. 4 “I will not have mercy on her children, For they are the children of harlotry.  5 For their mother has played the harlot; She who conceived them has behaved shamefully. For she said, ‘I will go after my lovers, Who give me my bread and my water, My wool and my linen, My oil and my drink.’  6 “ Therefore, behold, I will hedge up your way with thorns, And wall her in, So that she cannot find her paths.  7 She will chase her lovers, But not overtake them; Yes, she will seek them, but not find them. Then she will say, ‘I will go and return to my first husband, For then it was better for me than now.’

Hosea 2:14-16  4 “ Therefore, behold, I will allure her, Will bring her into the wilderness, And speak comfort to her.  15 I will give her her vineyards from there, And the Valley of Achor as a door of hope; She shall sing there, As in the days of her youth, As in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt.  16 “And it shall be, in that day,” Says the LORD, “That you will call Me ‘My Husband,’ And no longer call Me ‘My Master,’ 

Hosea 3:1  Then the LORD said to me, “Go again, love a woman who is loved by a lover and is committing adultery, just like the love of the LORD for the children of Israel, who look to other gods and love the raisin cakes of the pagans.”

Hosea 4:1-19  1Hear the word of the LORD, You children of Israel, For the LORD brings a charge against the inhabitants of the land: “There is no truth or mercy Or knowledge of God in the land.  2 By swearing and lying, Killing and stealing and committing adultery, They break all restraint, With bloodshed upon bloodshed.  3 Therefore the land will mourn; And everyone who dwells there will waste away With the beasts of the field And the birds of the air; Even the fish of the sea will be taken away.  4 “Now let no man contend, or rebuke another; For your people are like those who contend with the priest.  5 Therefore you shall stumble in the day; The prophet also shall stumble with you in the night; And I will destroy your mother.  6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for Me; Because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.  7 “ The more they increased, The more they sinned against Me; I will change their glory into shame.  8 They eat up the sin of My people; They set their heart on their iniquity.  9 And it shall be: like people, like priest. So I will punish them for their ways, And reward them for their deeds.  10 For they shall eat, but not have enough; They shall commit harlotry, but not increase; Because they have ceased obeying the LORD. 11 “ Harlotry, wine, and new wine enslave the heart.  12 My people ask counsel from their wooden idols, And their staff informs them. For the spirit of harlotry has caused them to stray, And they have played the harlot against their God. 13 They offer sacrifices on the mountaintops, And burn incense on the hills, Under oaks, poplars, and terebinths, Because their shade is good. Therefore your daughters commit harlotry, And your brides commit adultery.  14 “I will not punish your daughters when they commit harlotry, Nor your brides when they commit adultery; For the men themselves go apart with harlots, And offer sacrifices with a ritual harlot. Therefore people who do not understand will be trampled.  15 “ Though you, Israel, play the harlot, Let not Judah offend. Do not come up to Gilgal, Nor go up to Beth Aven, Nor swear an oath, saying, ‘As the LORD lives’ --  16 “For Israel is stubborn Like a stubborn calf; Now the LORD will let them forage Like a lamb in open country.  17 “Ephraim is joined to idols, Let him alone.  18 Their drink is rebellion, They commit harlotry continually. Her rulers dearly love dishonor.  19 The wind has wrapped her up in its wings, And they shall be ashamed because of their sacrifices.

Hosea 5:3-5   3 I know Ephraim, And Israel is not hidden from Me; For now, O Ephraim, you commit harlotry; Israel is defiled.  4 “They do not direct their deeds Toward turning to their God, For the spirit of harlotry is in their midst, And they do not know the LORD.  5 The pride of Israel testifies to his face; Therefore Israel and Ephraim stumble in their iniquity; Judah also stumbles with them. 

Hosea 8:14 - 9:2   14 “For Israel has forgotten his Maker, and has built temples; Judah also has multiplied fortified cities; But I will send fire upon his cities, And it shall devour his palaces.” 1Do not rejoice, O Israel, with joy like other peoples, For you have played the harlot against your God. You have made love for hire on every threshing floor.  2 The threshing floor and the winepress Shall not feed them, And the new wine shall fail in her.

Hosea 6:6-11   6 For I desire mercy and not sacrifice, And the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.  7 “But like men they transgressed the covenant; There they dealt treacherously with Me.  8 Gilead is a city of evildoers, And defiled with blood.  9 As bands of robbers lie in wait for a man, So the company of priests murder on the way to Shechem; Surely they commit lewdness.  10 I have seen a horrible thing in the house of Israel: There is the harlotry of Ephraim; Israel is defiled.  11 Also, O Judah, a harvest is appointed for you, When I return the captives of My people.

Joel 1:6-9   6 For a nation has come up against My land, Strong, and without number; His teeth are the teeth of a lion, And he has the fangs of a fierce lion.  7 He has laid waste My vine, And ruined My fig tree; He has stripped it bare and thrown it away; Its branches are made white.  8 Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth For the husband of her youth.  9 The grain offering and the drink offering Have been cut off from the house of the LORD; The priests mourn, who minister to the LORD.

Joel 2:15-17  15 Blow the trumpet in Zion, Consecrate a fast, Call a sacred assembly;  16 Gather the people, Sanctify the congregation, Assemble the elders, Gather the children and nursing babes; Let the bridegroom go out from his chamber, And the bride from her dressing room. 17 Let the priests, who minister to the LORD, Weep between the porch and the altar; Let them say, “Spare Your people, O LORD, And do not give Your heritage to reproach, That the nations should rule over them. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’ “

Amos 5:2-4  2 The virgin of Israel has fallen; She will rise no more. She lies forsaken on her land; There is no one to raise her up.  3 For thus says the Lord GOD: “The city that goes out by a thousand Shall have a hundred left, And that which goes out by a hundred Shall have ten left to the house of Israel.”  4 For thus says the LORD to the house of Israel: “Seek Me and live;

Malachi 2:10-11   10 Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us? Why do we deal treacherously with one another By profaning the covenant of the fathers?  11 Judah has dealt treacherously, And an abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem, For Judah has profaned The LORD’s holy institution which He loves: He has married the daughter of a foreign god.

Malachi 3:5   5 And I will come near you for judgment; I will be a swift witness Against sorcerers, Against adulterers, Against perjurers, Against those who exploit wage earners and widows and orphans, And against those who turn away an alien -- Because they do not fear Me,” Says the LORD of hosts.

Matthew 5:27-28   27 “ You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’  28 “But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

Matthew 9:14-17   14 Then the disciples of John came to Him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but Your disciples do not fast?”  15 And Jesus said to them, “Can the friends of the bridegroom mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.  16 “No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; for the patch pulls away from the garment, and the tear is made worse. 17 “Nor do they put new wine into old wineskins, or else the wineskins break, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But they put new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.” 

Matthew 25:1  “Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom.

Mark 2:18-22  18 The disciples of John and of the Pharisees were fasting. Then they came and said to Him, “Why do the disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast, but Your disciples do not fast?”  19 And Jesus said to them, “Can the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast.  20 “But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days.  21 “No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; or else the new piece pulls away from the old, and the tear is made worse.  22 “And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine bursts the wineskins, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But new wine must be put into new wineskins.”

Luke 5:33-35   33 Then they said to Him, “Why do the disciples of John fast often and make prayers, and likewise those of the Pharisees, but Yours eat and drink?”  34 And He said to them, “Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them?  35 “But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them; then they will fast in those days.”

John 3:26-29   26 And they came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, He who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you have testified -- behold, He is baptizing, and all are coming to Him!”  27 John answered and said, “A man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven.  28 “You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ,’ but, ‘I have been sent before Him.’  29 “He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is fulfilled.

John 14:2-4   2 “In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.  3 “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.  4 “And where I go you know, and the way you know.”

Romans 2:22   22 You who say, “Do not commit adultery,” do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?

Romans 7:1-4  1Or do you not know, brethren (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives? 2 For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband.  3 So then if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man.  4 Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another -- to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God.

1 Corinthians 6:9   9 Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites

1 Corinthians 11:3-16   3 But I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ, the head of woman is man, and the head of Christ is God.  4 Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonors his head.  5 But every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head, for that is one and the same as if her head were shaved. 6 For if a woman is not covered, let her also be shorn. But if it is shameful for a woman to be shorn or shaved, let her be covered.  7 For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God; but woman is the glory of man.  8 For man is not from woman, but woman from man.  9 Nor was man created for the woman, but woman for the man.  10 For this reason the woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels.  11 Nevertheless, neither is man independent of woman, nor woman independent of man, in the Lord.  12 For as woman came from man, even so man also comes through woman; but all things are from God.  13 Judge among yourselves. Is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered?  14 Does not even nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a dishonor to him?  15 But if a woman has long hair, it is a glory to her; for her hair is given to her for a covering.  16 But if anyone seems to be contentious, we have no such custom, nor do the churches of God.

2 Corinthians 11:2   2 For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

Galatians 5:19-20   19 Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness,  20 idolatry, sorcery…

Ephesians 1:13-14   13 In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise,  14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.

Ephesians 5:22-33   22Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.  23For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body.  24 Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything.  25Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, 26that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, 27that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.  28So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself.  29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church.  30 For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones.  31 “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”  32This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.  33 Nevertheless let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband. 

Colossians 3:18-19   18 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.  19 Husbands, love your wives and do not be bitter toward them.

Hebrews 8:7-13  7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second.  8 Because finding fault with them, He says: “Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah --  9 “not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they did not continue in My covenant, and I disregarded them, says the LORD.  10 “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.  11 “None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them.  12 “For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”  13 In that He says, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away. 

Hebrews 13:4   4Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge.

James 4:3-5   3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.  4 Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.  5 Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously”?

1 Peter 3:1-7  1Wives, likewise, be submissive to your own husbands, that even if some do not obey the word, they, without a word, may be won by the conduct of their wives,  2 when they observe your chaste conduct accompanied by fear.  3 Do not let your adornment be merely outward -- arranging the hair, wearing gold, or putting on fine apparel -- 4 rather let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God.  5 For in this manner, in former times, the holy women who trusted in God also adorned themselves, being submissive to their own husbands,  6 as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord, whose daughters you are if you do good and are not afraid with any terror.  7 Husbands, likewise, dwell with them with understanding, giving honor to the wife, as to the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers may not be hindered.

2 Peter 2:12-18  12 But these, like natural brute beasts made to be caught and destroyed, speak evil of the things they do not understand, and will utterly perish in their own corruption,  13 and will receive the wages of unrighteousness, as those who count it pleasure to carouse in the daytime. They are spots and blemishes, carousing in their own deceptions while they feast with you, 14 having eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease from sin, enticing unstable souls. They have a heart trained in covetous practices, and are accursed children.  15 They have forsaken the right way and gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; 16 but he was rebuked for his iniquity: a dumb donkey speaking with a man’s voice restrained the madness of the prophet.  17 These are wells without water, clouds carried by a tempest, for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.  18 For when they speak great swelling words of emptiness, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through lewdness, the ones who have actually escaped from those who live in error.

Revelation 2:20-23   20 “Nevertheless I have a few things against you, because you allow that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce My servants to commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols.  21 “And I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality, and she did not repent.  22 “Indeed I will cast her into a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds. 23 “I will kill her children with death, and all the churches shall know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts. And I will give to each one of you according to your works.

Revelation 18:21-24   21 Then a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, “Thus with violence the great city Babylon shall be thrown down, and shall not be found anymore.  22 “The sound of harpists, musicians, flutists, and trumpeters shall not be heard in you anymore. No craftsman of any craft shall be found in you anymore, and the sound of a millstone shall not be heard in you anymore.  23 “The light of a lamp shall not shine in you anymore, and the voice of bridegroom and bride shall not be heard in you anymore. For your merchants were the great men of the earth, for by your sorcery all the nations were deceived.  24 “And in her was found the blood of prophets and saints, and of all who were slain on the earth.”

Revelation 19:6-8   6 And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty thunderings, saying, “Alleluia! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigns!  7 “Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.”  8 And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.

Revelation 21:2   2 Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

Revelation 21:9   9 Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls filled with the seven last plagues came to me and talked with me, saying, “Come, I will show you the bride, the Lamb’s wife.”

Revelation 22:16-17   16 “I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things in the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, the Bright and Morning Star.”  17 And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely.

The Parallel of Christ and the Church with the Husband and Wife:

Proverbs 31:10-31   

10 Who can find a virtuous wife? For her worth is far above rubies. 

      Jesus seeks out His Church and valued her above all His own life.

11 The heart of her husband safely trusts her; So, he will have no lack of gain. 

      Jesus entrusts earthly ministry in the hands of His Church and finds fruitfulness by her.

12 She does him good and not evil All the days of her life. 

      The Church portrays Jesus and His reputation on earth to please Him and blesses Him.

13 She seeks wool and flax, And willingly works with her hands. 

      The Church goes forth diligently into the world in ministry.

14 She is like the merchant ships; She brings her food from afar. 

      The Church fulfills a broad, worldwide mission endeavor.

15 She also rises while it is yet night, And provides food for her household, And a portion for her maidservants. 

      The Church ceaselessly ministers to provides for those within and outside the Church.

16 She considers a field and buys it; From her profits she plants a vineyard. 

      The Church plans and organizes ministry efficiently and effectively.

17 She girds herself with strength, And strengthens her arms. 

      The Church boldly and protectively asserts her faith and morals and caring ministry, even to the point of martyrdom.

18 She perceives that her merchandise is good, And her lamp does not go out by night. 

      The Church understands her value in the world and works tirelessly.

19 She stretches out her hands to the distaff, And her hand holds the spindle. 

      The Church dexterously serves others in many different ways physically and spiritually.

20 She extends her hand to the poor, Yes, she reaches out her hands to the needy. 

      The Church has led the way in benevolence for those poor and needy worldwide. 

21 She is not afraid of snow for her household, For all her household is clothed with scarlet. 

      The Church is fearless and articulate in her faith within a fallen and sinful world. 

22 She makes tapestry for herself; Her clothing is fine linen and purple. 

      The Church is thorough in fulfilling her ministry to both those within and outside.

23 Her husband is known in the gates, When he sits among the elders of the land. 

      Jesus has all the glory among the nations of the earth spiritual and in the Millennial Kingdom physically.

24 She makes linen garments and sells them, And supplies sashes for the merchants. 

      The Church is creative and effective in serving others in Jesus’ name.

25 Strength and honor are her clothing; She shall rejoice in time to come. 

      The Church enjoys a broad view in her foresight and stamina in ministry.

26 She opens her mouth with wisdom, And on her tongue is the law of kindness. 

      The Church is vocal with a thoughtful and benevolent Gospel of eternal salvation and code of morality.

27 She watches over the ways of her household, And does not eat the bread of idleness. 

      The Church is watchful and hardworking in ministry.

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

      Those outside the faith see and speak of the good work of the Church in the world.

29 “Many daughters have done well, But you excel them all.” 

      And they acknowledge the uniqueness of this good work.

30 Charm is deceitful, and beauty is passing, But a woman who fears the LORD, she shall be praised. 

      Rather than praise for any temporal ornate lavishness, the world does appreciate the moral virtue espoused and lived by the Church.

 31 Give her of the fruit of her hands, And let her own works praise her in the gates.

      The Church deserves her credit for service by the beneficial and heartfelt results, and as an example for others.
 

[1] It is rather erroneous to translate the Greek word for betrothal or espoused in Matthew 1:18; Luke 1:27; 2:5, as “engaged.” The term, “engaged,” obscures the meaning of the Greek word and leaves the wrong impression and wrong cultural understanding of the marital state of Jesus earthly parents at the time of His birth.

[2] Even, today in Jewish weddings, when the groom approaches the bride, the officiating Rabbi would announce this with the word in Hebrew from Psalm 118:26, “Blessed is He who comes in the Name of Adonai.” 

[3] This intimacy-parallel of a man and his wife with Christ and Christian believer does have the converse of an intimacy-parallel between any two people not married to each other (as fornication or adultery) with religious adherent in a pagan religion.