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Sunday, September 21st, 2025
the Week of Proper 20 / Ordinary 25
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Read the Bible

Young's Literal Translation

Colossians 3:19

the husbands! love your wives, and be not bitter with them;

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Husband;   Wife;   Thompson Chain Reference - Conjugal Love;   Family;   Home;   Love;   Social Duties;   The Topic Concordance - Love;   Marriage;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Husbands;  

Dictionaries:

- Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Husband;   Wife;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Divorce;   Family Life and Relations;   Marriage;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Wife;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Marriage;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Colossians;   Marriage;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Christian Life;   Commandment;   Liberty;   Marriage;   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Husband;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Marriage;   Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary - Sanctification;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Bitter;   Essenes, the;   Wrath (Anger);   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Marriage;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Husbands, love your wives and don’t be bitter toward them.
King James Version (1611)
Husbands, loue your wiues, and be not bitter against them.
King James Version
Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them.
English Standard Version
Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them.
New American Standard Bible
Husbands, love your wives and do not become bitter against them.
New Century Version
Husbands, love your wives and be gentle with them.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
Husbands, love your wives and do not be embittered against them.
Legacy Standard Bible
Husbands, love your wives and do not be embittered against them.
Berean Standard Bible
Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them.
Contemporary English Version
A husband must love his wife and not abuse her.
Complete Jewish Bible
Husbands, love your wives and don't treat them harshly.
Darby Translation
Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them.
Easy-to-Read Version
Husbands, love your wives, and be gentle to them.
Geneva Bible (1587)
Husbands, loue your wiues, and be not bitter vnto them.
George Lamsa Translation
Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter toward them.
Good News Translation
Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them.
Lexham English Bible
Husbands, love your wives and do not be embittered against them.
Literal Translation
Husbands, love the wives and do not be bitter against them.
Amplified Bible
Husbands, love your wives [with an affectionate, sympathetic, selfless love that always seeks the best for them] and do not be embittered or resentful toward them [because of the responsibilities of marriage].
American Standard Version
Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them.
Bible in Basic English
Husbands, have love for your wives, and be not bitter against them.
Hebrew Names Version
Husbands, love your wives, and don't be bitter against them.
International Standard Version
Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh withbitter toward">[fn] them.Ephesians 4:31; 1 Peter 3:7;">[xr]
Etheridge Translation
Men, love your wives, and be not bitter against them.
Murdock Translation
Husbands, love ye your wives, and be not bitter towards them.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
Husbandes, loue your wyues, and be not bitter agaynst them:
English Revised Version
Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them.
World English Bible
Husbands, love your wives, and don't be bitter against them.
Wesley's New Testament (1755)
Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them.
Weymouth's New Testament
Married men, be affectionate to your wives, and do not treat them harshly.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Men, loue ye youre wyues, and nyle ye be bittere to hem.
Update Bible Version
Husbands, love your wives, and do not be bitter against them.
Webster's Bible Translation
Husbands, love [your] wives, and be not bitter against them.
New English Translation
Husbands, love your wives and do not be embittered against them.
New King James Version
Husbands, love your wives and do not be bitter toward them.
New Living Translation
Husbands, love your wives and never treat them harshly.
New Life Bible
Husbands, love your wives. Do not hold hard feelings against them.
New Revised Standard
Husbands, love your wives and never treat them harshly.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Ye husbands! be loving your wives, and be not embittered against them;
Douay-Rheims Bible
Husbands, love your wives and be not bitter towards them.
Revised Standard Version
Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them.
Tyndale New Testament (1525)
Husbandes love youre wyves and be not bitter vnto them.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Ye hussbandes, loue youre wyues, and be not bytter vnto them.
Mace New Testament (1729)
husbands, love your wives, and do not exasperate them.
THE MESSAGE
Husbands, go all out in love for your wives. Don't take advantage of them.
Simplified Cowboy Version
Guys, love your wives and don't be mean to them. This is your way of submitting to them.

Contextual Overview

18 The wives! be subject to your own husbands, as is fit in the Lord; 19 the husbands! love your wives, and be not bitter with them; 20 the children! obey the parents in all things, for this is well-pleasing to the Lord; 21 the fathers! vex not your children, lest they be discouraged. 22 The servants! obey in all things those who are masters according to the flesh, not in eye-service as men-pleasers, but in simplicity of heart, fearing God; 23 and all, whatever ye may do -- out of soul work -- as to the Lord, and not to men, 24 having known that from the Lord ye shall receive the recompense of the inheritance -- for the Lord Christ ye serve; 25 and he who is doing unrighteously shall receive what he did unrighteously, and there is no acceptance of persons.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

love: Genesis 2:23, Genesis 2:24, Genesis 24:67, Proverbs 5:18, Proverbs 5:19, Ecclesiastes 9:9, Malachi 2:14-16, Luke 14:26, Ephesians 5:25, Ephesians 5:28, Ephesians 5:29, Ephesians 5:33, 1 Peter 3:7

bitter: Colossians 3:21, Romans 3:14, Ephesians 4:31, James 3:14

Reciprocal: 1 Corinthians 7:33 - how

Cross-References

Genesis 3:12
and the man saith, `The woman whom Thou didst place with me -- she hath given to me of the tree -- and I do eat.'
Genesis 3:13
And Jehovah God saith to the woman, `What [is] this thou hast done?' and the woman saith, `The serpent hath caused me to forget -- and I do eat.'
Genesis 3:16
Unto the woman He said, `Multiplying I multiply thy sorrow and thy conception, in sorrow dost thou bear children, and toward thy husband [is] thy desire, and he doth rule over thee.'
Genesis 3:21
And Jehovah God doth make to the man and to his wife coats of skin, and doth clothe them.
Genesis 3:22
And Jehovah God saith, `Lo, the man was as one of Us, as to the knowledge of good and evil; and now, lest he send forth his hand, and have taken also of the tree of life, and eaten, and lived to the age,' --
Genesis 18:27
And Abraham answereth and saith, `Lo, I pray thee, I have willed to speak unto the Lord, and I -- dust and ashes;
Genesis 23:4
`A sojourner and a settler I [am] with you; give to me a possession of a burying-place with you, and I bury my dead from before me.'
Job 1:21
and he saith, `Naked came I forth from the womb of my mother, and naked I turn back thither: Jehovah hath given and Jehovah hath taken: let the name of Jehovah be blessed.'
Job 19:26
And after my skin hath compassed this [body], Then from my flesh I see God:
Job 21:26
Together -- on the dust they lie down, And the worm doth cover them over.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Husbands, love your wives,.... :-.

and be not bitter against them; turning love into hatred of their persons; ruling with rigour, and in a tyrannical manner; behaving towards them in a morose, churlish, and ill natured way; giving them either bitter words, or blows, and denying them their affection, care, provision, protection, and assistance, but using them as servants, or worse. All which is barbarous, brutish, and unchristian, and utterly unbecoming the Gospel.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Husbands, love your wives ... - Notes, Ephesians 4:25-29.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 19. Be not bitter against them. — Wherever bitterness is, there love is wanting. And where love is wanting in the married life, there is hell upon earth.


 
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