Wedding ceremony readings
Bible verses for a wedding ceremony
1 Corinthians 13 is the passage most often read at weddings, and Genesis 2, Ruth 1, Song of Solomon 8, Ecclesiastes 4 and Colossians 3 are the others that come up again and again. All of them are public domain — the King James text, and the Jewish Publication Society’s 1917 for the Hebrew Bible passages a Jewish family is more likely to expect — so each one carries its full wording on its own page and can go straight into a ceremony script.
The King James text is the one most guests half-remember, which is why it is mostly what we print — with the Jewish Publication Society’s 1917 where a Hebrew Bible passage is more likely to be heard in that voice. Each page names the edition it is printing. If the couple prefers another translation, paste it in — the script is yours to edit, and the timing recalculates around whatever length you end up with.
Every passage below was diffed against a full-text edition rather than typed from memory. That matters more than it sounds: a reading is delivered aloud, off a printed page, in front of people who know it by heart.
29 bible verses for a wedding ceremony, shortest first
- 15 secondsJeremiah 29:11King James Bible · One verse, and one many couples can already say from memory.
- 15 secondsRomans 13:8King James Bible · A single line: the one debt worth carrying is loving each other.
- 15 seconds1 Corinthians 16:13–14King James Bible · Four short commands, then charity. "Quit you like men" is King James for "be brave".
- 20 secondsMark 10:6–9King James Bible · Mark's shorter version of the same passage.
- 20 seconds1 Peter 4:8–10King James Bible · Twenty seconds, and it covers hospitality and forgiveness.
- 25 secondsMatthew 19:4–6King James Bible · Where "let no man put asunder" comes from.
- 30 secondsRuth 1:16–17aKing James Bible · Said between two women, and the most quoted promise in scripture.
- 30 secondsSong of Solomon 8:6–7King James Bible · Fierce rather than sweet. "Many waters cannot quench love."
- 30 secondsPhilippians 2:2–4King James Bible · Three verses on putting the other person first. Names no doctrine at all.
- 30 secondsProverbs 30:18–19King James Bible · Four things too wonderful to explain, and love is the fourth.
- 35 secondsEcclesiastes 4:9–12King James Bible · Plain and practical. Works at a service with almost no religious framing.
- 35 secondsJohn 15:9–12King James Bible · A gospel reading, short enough to sit anywhere in the ceremony.
- 35 secondsPsalm 100King James Bible · Short, glad, and useful right at the top of a service.
- 35 secondsProverbs 3:3–6King James Bible · Mercy and truth, bound about the neck and written on the heart.
- 40 secondsSong of Solomon 2:10–13King James Bible · The one that sounds like a love letter, because it is one.
- 40 secondsPsalm 128King James Bible · The household psalm — the responsorial at most Catholic weddings.
- 40 secondsEphesians 4:2–6King James Bible · Patience first, then unity — and it gathers both families into one line.
- 40 secondsTobit 8:5–8King James Bible · The Catholic favorite — "that we may become aged together."
- 45 seconds1 Corinthians 13:4–8aKing James Bible · The short form — the one most people mean by "the love passage".
- 50 secondsEphesians 3:14–19King James Bible · "Rooted and grounded in love" — and it names both families at once.
- 55 seconds1 John 4:7–12King James Bible · The passage that says plainly where the tradition thinks love comes from.
- 55 secondsEshet Chayil — A Woman of Valour (Proverbs 31, JPS 1917)JPS 1917 translation · Sung on Shabbat, read at the funeral of a mother or grandmother.
- a minute and a halfProverbs 31:10–12, 25–31King James Bible · Read at weddings, and often at the funeral of a mother or grandmother.
- a minute and a halfColossians 3:12–17King James Bible · About the daily work of it — forbearing and forgiving.
- a minute and a halfIsaiah 55:10–12King James Bible · Ends on the hills singing and the trees clapping — good for a recessional cue.
- a minute and a halfGenesis 2:18–24King James Bible · The oldest answer to why anyone marries: it is not good to be alone.
- a minute and a halfRomans 12:9–18King James Bible · "Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep."
- a minute and a halfPhilippians 4:4–8King James Bible · "Rejoice in the Lord alway", and the peace that passeth all understanding.
- two minutes1 Corinthians 13:1–13King James Bible · The whole chapter, including "through a glass, darkly".
Questions
Bible verses for a wedding ceremony: what is usually chosen?
1 Corinthians 13 is the passage most often read at weddings, and Genesis 2, Ruth 1, Song of Solomon 8, Ecclesiastes 4 and Colossians 3 are the others that come up again and again. All of them are public domain — the King James text, and the Jewish Publication Society’s 1917 for the Hebrew Bible passages a Jewish family is more likely to expect — so each one carries its full wording on its own page and can go straight into a ceremony script.
Which of these can be printed in the script?
29 of the 29 readings on this page carry their full text on their own page, so they can go straight into a ceremony script or an order of service.
Texts last checked .
The reading is two minutes. The ceremony is the rest of it.
Answer some questions about the couple and get the whole thing written out — the welcome, their story, the vows, the ring exchange, the pronouncement — with your chosen readings already in place and the timing worked out around them.