20 romantic Bible verses to give to the person you love
Written by Raphael Navarro Schmitt · Reviewed by Maria Luisa Navarro Schmitt ·
Short answer
The Song of Solomon is the Bible’s romantic book, and its bluntest: at 8:7-8 love is measured against death and fire, and no flood puts it out. Outside it, 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 describes love as a daily practice, and Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 explains why two together beat one alone.
There is an entire book of the Bible given over to love between two people, and it does not apologise for itself. The Song of Solomon talks about an invitation, about waiting at a door, about crossing the city at night looking for someone. Anyone raised to believe that faith is cold about affection tends to be surprised on a first reading.
At the other end of the Bible sit the texts nobody writes inside a card, and they are precisely the ones that hold a long marriage up: the love that keeps no ledger, the love you put on every morning like clothing, the love that covers a fault instead of filing it. Both kinds are on this list, because a couple needs both.
The first entries are for saying what you feel. The last ones are for the years when saying it is no longer enough.
All 20 verses, one by one
7Set me like a seal upon your heart, like a seal upon your arm. For love is strong, like death, and envy is enduring, like hell: their lamps are made of fire and flames.
8A multitude of waters cannot extinguish love, nor can a river overwhelm it. If a man were to give all the substance of his house in exchange for love, he would despise it as nothing.
The lines that end up engraved inside a ring and inked on a forearm, almost always in half. Look at what love gets compared to here: a seal, death, fire, a flood of water that cannot put it out. Nothing floral — only things that do not negotiate and do not go out. Other Bibles print this as 8:6-7.
Read the chapter12Groom to Bride: Rise up, quickly, my love, my dove, my shapely one, and advance.
13For winter has now past; the rain has decreased and gone away.
14The flowers have appeared in our land; the time for pruning has arrived. The voice of the turtledove has been heard in our land.
15The fig tree has brought forth its green figs; the flowering vines bestow their odor. Rise up, my love, my brilliant one, and advance.
An invitation to get out of the house: winter is over, the flowers are back, come. The passage opens and closes with the same summons, which is the whole effect. This is the verse of the beginning, when the other person is still someone you call rather than someone you live with — which is why it works so well in the first year.
Read the chapterChorus to Groom and Bride: Capture for us the little foxes, which are tearing down the vines; for our vineyard has flourished. Bride to Chorus: My beloved is for me, and I am for him. He pastures among the lilies, until the day rises and the shadows decline. Bride to Groom: Return, O my beloved. Be like a doe and like a young stag upon the mountains of Bether.
The entire thing in one sentence, in the right order: first he is hers, then she is his. In this edition it is not a verse of its own — it arrives in the middle of a long one, between the little foxes and the mountains, and it is worth hunting for. Written by hand on a piece of paper, it beats any caption.
Read the chapterI am for my beloved, and his turning is to me.
The same sentence as 2:17, said again five chapters later — and this time it starts from her side rather than his. The order flips somewhere in the middle of the book. Anyone who has been with someone long enough knows exactly when that swap happens.
Read the chapterYou have wounded my heart, my sister, my spouse. You have wounded my heart with one look of your eyes, and with one lock of hair on your neck.
One look and one lock of hair were enough. The compliment is not paid to the whole person: it is paid to the smallest available detail, which is how infatuation actually works — and the verse says the same thing twice, as if once did not carry it.
Read the chapterWhen I had passed by them a little, I found him whom my soul loves. I held him, and would not release him, until I would bring him into my mother’s house, and into the chamber of her who bore me.
She finds him, holds him, refuses to let go, and takes him home. Every verb in the verse is hers. In an ancient book, carrying all the weight of its century, the woman runs the entire scene.
Read the chapterThe Lord God also said: “It is not good for the man to be alone. Let us make a helper for him similar to himself.”
The first thing God calls not good in the creation account is being alone. Before any rule about marriage arrives, the Bible has already named solitude as the problem.
Read the chapterFor this reason, a man shall leave behind his father and mother, and he shall cling to his wife; and the two shall be as one flesh.
The most-read verse at weddings, and the most demanding one: somebody walks out of one house in order to build another. Leaving comes before clinging — and leaving is the part that usually costs real work.
Read the chapterTherefore, Jacob served for seven years for Rachel. And these seemed like only a few days, because of the greatness of love.
Seven years of labour that felt like a handful of days, and the verse says outright why: the size of the love, not the size of the wait. It is the Bible measuring an emotion with a work record.
Read the chapter16She answered, “Do not be against me, as if I would abandon you and go away; for wherever you will go, I will go, and where you will stay, I also will stay with you. Your people are my people, and your God is my God.
17Whichever land will receive you dying, in the same I will die, and there I will have the place of my burial. May God cause these things to happen to me, and add more also, if anything except death alone should separate you and I.”
One of the most-read texts at weddings, and worth knowing where it comes from: Ruth is speaking to her mother-in-law, not to a husband. What is promised there is chosen loyalty rather than passion — which may be exactly why it survives being read at an altar.
Read the chapterHe who has found a good wife has found goodness, and he shall draw contentment from the Lord. He who expels a good wife expels goodness. But he who holds on to an adulteress is foolish and impious.
The proverb treats the meeting as something that happened to the man rather than something he achieved — the difference between finding and deserving. This edition does not stop at the congratulation: it adds what is thrown away by driving a good wife off, which turns the verse into a warning as much as a blessing.
Read the chapter10Who shall find a strong woman? Far away, and from the furthest parts, is her price.
11The heart of her husband confides in her, and he will not be deprived of spoils.
12She will repay him with good, and not evil, all the days of her life.
The praise opens with trust, not beauty — and this edition calls her strong rather than virtuous. It is spoken in the voice of a husband who knows what he is talking about: she does him good every day of her life, including the days he does not notice.
Read the chapter9Therefore, it is better for two to be together, than for one to be alone. For they have the advantage of their companionship.
10If one falls, he shall be supported by the other. Woe to one who is alone. For when he falls, he has no one to lift him up.
11And if two are sleeping, they warm one another. How can one person alone be warmed?
12And if a man can prevail against one, two may withstand him, and a threefold cord is broken with difficulty.
The threefold cord became a wedding reading for good reason, but the argument leading up to it is better: one falls, and there is someone there to lift him. Companionship here is practical usefulness — footing, warmth, a second pair of hands — rather than romance.
Read the chapter4Charity is patient, is kind. Charity does not envy, does not act wrongly, is not inflated.
5Charity is not ambitious, does not seek for itself, is not provoked to anger, devises no evil.
6Charity does not rejoice over iniquity, but rejoices in truth.
7Charity suffers all, believes all, hopes all, endures all.
Paul did not write this for an engaged couple: he wrote it to a church that was fighting, in the middle of an argument about spiritual gifts. Reading it that way improves the text, because it proves it was built for people who were putting up with each other badly. This edition calls it charity, which is the older word and the colder one — and closer to what Paul was actually asking of a congregation that could not stand itself.
Read the chapterBut for now, these three continue: faith, hope, and charity. And the greatest of these is charity.
Three things remain, and the greatest is the third one named. Good for the end of a vow, when everything has been said and all that is left is choosing the last word.
Read the chapterHusbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the Church and handed himself over for her,
The measure this verse hands a husband is self-surrender, not authority. Anyone who quotes this chapter and stops one verse earlier is stopping exactly where the bill starts arriving on the other side of the table.
Read the chapterAnd above all these things have charity, which is the bond of perfection.
It closes a list you are told, two verses earlier, to put on like clothing — and love is the outer layer, the thing that holds the rest of the set together. Not a feeling that turns up: a garment you choose before you leave the house.
Read the chapterBut, before all things, have a constant mutual charity among yourselves. For love covers a multitude of sins.
The verse for the second year of marriage. Covering is not pretending you did not see: it is deciding that this particular thing will not be filed away and produced again every time an argument heats up.
Read the chapterTherefore, let us love God, for God first loved us.
The shortest line on the list and the one that rearranges the rest: nobody here invented love. Everyone is handing back something they were given first.
Read the chapter19And I will betroth you to me forever, and I will betroth you to me in justice and judgment, and in mercy and compassion.
20And I will wed you to me in faith, and you will know that I am the Lord.
God speaking in the language of a betrothal, inside a book about a marriage that fell apart. The weight is in who is saying it: this is a promise made after the betrayal, not before it — and the terms it names are justice, mercy and faith rather than feeling.
Read the chapter
Frequently asked questions
What is the most romantic verse in the Bible?
Song of Solomon 8:7-8 is the one most often quoted: love set beside death and fire, and a flood of water that cannot put it out. Song of Solomon 2:17 is the short alternative, for a note or an engraving. Both come from the only book in the Bible given over entirely to love between two people. Bibles that follow the Hebrew count print them as 8:6-7 and 2:16.
Which verse should I use in a marriage proposal?
Song of Solomon 2:12-15 works well because it is an invitation — rise up and come — rather than a finished declaration. For something graver, Song of Solomon 8:7-8 or Ecclesiastes 4:9-12. Choose one only: a proposal with three verses becomes a reading, and readings move nobody.
Can Ruth 1:16-17 be used at a wedding?
Yes, and it is used constantly, though it is worth knowing that Ruth says it to her mother-in-law rather than to a husband. The text is about loyalty chosen instead of loyalty inherited by blood, which in practice suits a marriage vow very well — as long as whoever reads it knows where the line came from.
Is the Song of Solomon really about love between a couple?
On the surface the text is love poetry between two people, written in the first person by both of them. Across history it has also been read as a picture of the love between God and his people, and the two readings have lived side by side in different churches for centuries. Neither one cancels the other.
A prayer to take with you
Lord, thank you for this person I neither manufactured nor earned. Teach us to love each other on the ordinary days, which are most of them, and not only on the beautiful ones. And let our love cover a fault instead of keeping a list. Amen.