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Sunday, August 10th, 2025
the Week of Proper 14 / Ordinary 19
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Bible in Basic English

Colossians 3:18

Wives, be under the authority of your husbands, as is right in the Lord.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Family;   Husband;   Wife;   Thompson Chain Reference - Duty;   Home;   Social Duties;   Wives' Duty;   Women;   The Topic Concordance - Marriage;   Submission;  

Dictionaries:

- Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Marriage;   Sexuality, Human;   Woman;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Marriage;   Wife;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Colosse;   Marriage;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Colossians;   Marriage;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Ethics;   Grace;   Marriage;   Sanctification, Sanctify;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Angels;   Christian Life;   Colossians, Epistle to the;   Commandment;   Family;   Justice;   Liberty;   Marriage;   Quotations;   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Husband;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Marriage;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Essenes, the;   In the Lord;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Marriage;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Wives, submit yourselves to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.
King James Version (1611)
Wiues, submit your selues vnto your owne husbands, as it is fit in the Lord.
King James Version
Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord.
English Standard Version
Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.
New American Standard Bible
Wives, be subject to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.
New Century Version
Wives, yield to the authority of your husbands, because this is the right thing to do in the Lord.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
Wives, be subject to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.
Legacy Standard Bible
Wives, be subject to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.
Berean Standard Bible
Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.
Contemporary English Version
A wife must put her husband first. This is her duty as a follower of the Lord.
Complete Jewish Bible
Wives, subject yourselves to your husbands, as is appropriate in the Lord.
Darby Translation
Wives, be subject to [your] husbands, as is fitting in [the] Lord.
Easy-to-Read Version
Wives, be willing to serve your husbands. This is the right thing to do in following the Lord.
Geneva Bible (1587)
Wiues, submit your selues vnto your husbands, as it is comely in the Lord.
George Lamsa Translation
Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands, as it is appropriate in Christ.
Good News Translation
Wives, submit yourselves to your husbands, for that is what you should do as Christians.
Lexham English Bible
Wives, be subject to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.
Literal Translation
Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.
Amplified Bible
Wives, be subject to your husbands [out of respect for their position as protector, and their accountability to God], as is proper and fitting in the Lord.
American Standard Version
Wives, be in subjection to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.
Hebrew Names Version
Wives, be in subjection to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.
International Standard Version
Wives, submit yourselves to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.Ephesians 5:3,22; Titus 2:5; 1 Peter 3:1;">[xr]
Etheridge Translation
WIVES, be subject to your husbands, as it is right in the Meshiha.
Murdock Translation
Wives, be ye subject to your husbands, as is right in the Messiah.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
Wiues, submit your selues vnto your owne husbandes, as it is comely in the Lorde.
English Revised Version
Wives, be in subjection to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.
World English Bible
Wives, be in subjection to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.
Wesley's New Testament (1755)
Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands (as is fit) in the Lord.
Weymouth's New Testament
Married women, be submissive to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Wymmen, be ye sugetis to youre hosebondis, as it bihoueth in the Lord.
Update Bible Version
Wives, be in subjection to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.
Webster's Bible Translation
Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord.
New English Translation
Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.
New King James Version
Ephesians 5:21-6:9">[xr] Wives, submit to your own husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.
New Living Translation
Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting for those who belong to the Lord.
New Life Bible
Wives, obey your husbands. This is what the Lord wants you to do.
New Revised Standard
Wives, be subject to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Ye wives! be submitting yourselves unto your husbands, as is becoming in the Lord;
Douay-Rheims Bible
Wives, be subject to your husbands, as it behoveth in the Lord.
Revised Standard Version
Wives, be subject to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.
Tyndale New Testament (1525)
Wyves submit youre selves vnto youre awne husbandes as it is comly in the Lorde.
Young's Literal Translation
The wives! be subject to your own husbands, as is fit in the Lord;
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Ye wyues, submytte youre selues vnto youre hussbandes, as it is comly in the LORDE.
Mace New Testament (1729)
Dames, be submissive to your husbands, as becomes christians.
THE MESSAGE
Wives, understand and support your husbands by submitting to them in ways that honor the Master.
Simplified Cowboy Version
Ladies, show respect for your husbands and submit to him out of your love for the Lord.

Contextual Overview

18 Wives, be under the authority of your husbands, as is right in the Lord. 19 Husbands, have love for your wives, and be not bitter against them. 20 Children, do the orders of your fathers and mothers in all things, for this is pleasing to the Lord. 21 Fathers, do not be hard on your children, so that their spirit may not be broken. 22 Servants, in all things do the orders of your natural masters; not only when their eyes are on you, as pleasers of men, but with all your heart, fearing the Lord: 23 Whatever you do, do it readily, as to the Lord and not to men; 24 Being certain that the Lord will give you the reward of the heritage: for you are the servants of the Lord Christ. 25 For the wrongdoer will have punishment for the wrong he has done, without respect for any man's position.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

submit: Genesis 3:16, Esther 1:20, 1 Corinthians 11:3, 1 Corinthians 14:34, Ephesians 5:22-24, Ephesians 5:33, 1 Timothy 2:12, Titus 2:4, Titus 2:5, 1 Peter 3:1-6

as: Acts 5:29, Ephesians 5:3, Ephesians 6:1

Reciprocal: Ruth 1:8 - the dead 1 Timothy 2:11 - General

Cross-References

Genesis 3:14
And the Lord God said to the snake, Because you have done this you are cursed more than all cattle and every beast of the field; you will go flat on the earth, and dust will be your food all the days of your life:
Genesis 3:15
And there will be war between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed: by him will your head be crushed and by you his foot will be wounded.
Joshua 23:13
Then you may be certain that the Lord your God will not go on driving these nations out from before you; but they will become a danger and a cause of sin to you, a whip for your sides and thorns in your eyes, till you are cut off from this good land which the Lord your God has given you.
Job 1:21
With nothing I came out of my mother's body, and with nothing I will go back there; the Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; let the Lord's name be praised.
Job 5:5
Their produce is taken by him who has no food, and their grain goes to the poor, and he who is in need of water gets it from their spring.
Job 31:40
Then in place of grain let thorns come up, and in place of barley evil-smelling plants.
Psalms 90:3
You send man back to his dust; and say, Go back, you children of men.
Psalms 104:2
You are clothed with light as with a robe; stretching out the heavens like a curtain:
Proverbs 22:5
Thorns and nets are in the way of the twisted: he who keeps watch over his soul will be far from them.
Proverbs 24:31
And it was all full of thorns, and covered with waste plants, and its stone wall was broken down.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands,.... The apostle proceeds from those duties which related to them as church members one towards another, for their mutual good and edification, and the glory of God, to such as concerned them in their own houses and families, as in a natural relation to each other; as husbands and wives, parents and children, masters and servants; showing hereby, that the Gospel does not at all break in upon, but establishes the duties of common and civil life. Concerning the duty wives to their husbands, here exhorted to, :-. The reason urging to a regard to it is,

as it is fit in the Lord; that is, Christ, as the Syriac version reads it. Subjection of wives to their own husbands is "fit" and proper in its own nature, by reason of the original creation of man, and of the woman from him: man was made first, and then the woman; and the woman was made out of the man, out of one of his ribs; and so, though not to be trampled under his feet, but to be by his side, and an help meet to him, yet not to be head, or to rule over him. Moreover, the woman was made for the man, and not the man for the woman; add to this, that the woman was in the transgression, and the means of the fall of man, which gave a fresh reason for, and made the obligation to subjection to him the stronger: and it is also a "decent" and becoming thing for wives to be subject to their husbands; for as it is giving honour to them, it is a real ornament to themselves, and is one of those good works which women professing godliness should adorn themselves with; and makes more comely and beautiful than broidered hair; gold, pearls, or costly array, yea, than their natural favour and beauty: it is what is fitting "in the Lord": it is what he requires, not only what the law of God requires, see 1 Corinthians 14:34 and which was enjoined originally, see Genesis 3:16 and was charged as a duty under the legal dispensation; but is what is commanded by Christ under the Gospel dispensation, and is to be observed by all those that are "in" him, that profess to be new creatures, converted persons, that so the word of God be not blasphemed, and the enemy have no occasion to reproach, see Titus 2:5 though this phrase may also be considered as a restriction and limitation of this subjection; that though it reaches to all things, yet only to such as are agreeable to the will of the Lord, and not contrary to the Gospel of Christ; for in these they are not to be subject to them, but to Christ the Lord; but in all other things they are, even as the church is subject to Christ: and when this is the case, such subjection is regarded by Christ as if it was done to himself; and indeed his honour and glory should be the governing view in it; see Ephesians 5:22.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Wives, submit yourselves ... - Notes on the parallel passage in Ephesians 5:21-24.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 18. Wives, submit yourselves — Having done with general directions, the apostle comes to particular duties, which are commonly called relative; because they only belong to persons in certain situations; and are not incumbent on all. No woman has the duty of a wife to perform but she who is one, and no man has the duty of a husband to perform but he who is married.

The directions here to wives, husbands, children, parents, servants, and masters, are so exactly the same in substance with those in Ephesians 5:22-33(note); Ephesians 6:1-9 (note), that there is no need to repeat what has been said on those passages; and to the notes there the reader is requested to refer.

As it is fit in the Lord. — God commands it; and it is both proper and decent.


 
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