Religious wedding readings by tradition
Updated August 2026
Religious wedding readings, grouped by the tradition they belong to, printed complete, and sourced. Every text here comes from a translation old enough to be free for anyone to use, and each one says which translation it is, because the wording of a familiar passage is exactly the thing a family notices.
This page is also honest about its edges. Several living traditions have no translation we may lawfully reprint, and those are described rather than reproduced, with a pointer to where the couple’s own community keeps the real thing. That is a better answer than a paraphrase presented as scripture.
Hebrew scripture
These passages are read at Jewish and Christian weddings alike. The wording below is the 1611 King James Version, which many families find beautiful and some find archaic; a Jewish couple may well prefer their own community’s translation, and should use it.
Ruth 1:16–17
about 20 secondsNot written about marriage at all (it is spoken by a widow to her mother-in-law), but it is the plainest promise of belonging in scripture, and it is read at Jewish and Christian weddings alike.
Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God: where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried.
Where this text comes from
Traditional, The Holy Bible, King James Version — Ruth 1:16–17, first published 1611. From the 1611 King James Version, which is in the public domain in the United States. (In the United Kingdom it remains under Crown letters patent; if you are publishing there rather than reading aloud, check that first.)
Checked against Project Gutenberg: The King James Version of the Bible.
Reading it aloud
It is twenty seconds long, so the only real risk is racing it. Put a beat before "thy people shall be my people" — that is the line the couple’s families are listening for.
If it matters to the couple, say in one sentence who is speaking and to whom before you begin. It changes the passage from a love poem into something braver.
Ecclesiastes 4:9–12
about 25 secondsThe practical case for partnership: two people are simply better equipped than one. Suits couples who find grand romantic language embarrassing.
Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up.
Again, if two lie together, then they have heat: but how can one be warm alone? And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.
Where this text comes from
Traditional, The Holy Bible, King James Version — Ecclesiastes 4:9–12, first published 1611. From the 1611 King James Version, which is in the public domain in the United States. (In the United Kingdom it remains under Crown letters patent; if you are publishing there rather than reading aloud, check that first.)
Checked against Project Gutenberg: The King James Version of the Bible.
Reading it aloud
The reading builds to "a threefold cord is not quickly broken", so hold something back for it. Read the earlier images matter-of-factly and let the last clause be the one you slow into.
Couples often pair this with a handfasting or a cord ritual, and the two together are strong. Tell your officiant if you plan that, so the reading is placed right before it rather than at the top of the ceremony.
Song of Solomon 8:6–7
about 20 secondsFierce rather than sweet, and startlingly physical for scripture. The right pick when a couple wants something ancient that does not sound polite.
Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame.
Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it: if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned.
Where this text comes from
Traditional, The Holy Bible, King James Version — Song of Solomon 8:6–7, first published 1611. From the 1611 King James Version, which is in the public domain in the United States. (In the United Kingdom it remains under Crown letters patent; if you are publishing there rather than reading aloud, check that first.)
Checked against Project Gutenberg: The King James Version of the Bible.
Reading it aloud
This passage compares love to death and to fire in its first sentence, and readers instinctively soften it. Do not. The strength of the reading is that it refuses to be pretty.
One archaic word will trip you: "contemned" means despised, and it is said con-TEMND. Practice the final clause aloud or drop to the shorter version that ends at "neither can the floods drown it".
Genesis 2:18, 21–24
about 30 secondsThe origin story most wedding liturgies are quietly built on, and the source of "one flesh". Short, familiar, and expected in many traditional services.
And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.
And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; and the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
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. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.
Where this text comes from
Traditional, The Holy Bible, King James Version — Genesis 2:18, 21–24, first published 1611. From the 1611 King James Version, which is in the public domain in the United States. (In the United Kingdom it remains under Crown letters patent; if you are publishing there rather than reading aloud, check that first.)
Checked against Project Gutenberg: The King James Version of the Bible.
Reading it aloud
Read "an help meet for him" as written; it is one phrase meaning a companion suited to him, not a typing error, and correcting it mid-reading is the classic stumble.
The reading is entirely about two people, so look at them on "bone of my bones" and again on "one flesh". Those are the two lines the couple will remember hearing.
Jewish liturgy
The Seven Blessings are said under the canopy after the marriage contract is read, and are often shared among seven readers.
The Seven Blessings
about 1 minute for all sevenThe heart of a Jewish wedding under the canopy, often shared out so seven different people each read one. A beautiful way to give a role to seven people you love.
Said after the marriage contract is read. Line breaks in the scan have been closed up; the wording is Singer’s.
Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who createst the fruit of the vine.
Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who hast created all things to thy glory.
Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe, Creator of man.
Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who hast made man in thine image, after thy likeness, and hast prepared unto him, out of his very self, a perpetual fabric. Blessed art thou, O Lord, Creator of man.
May she who was barren be exceeding glad and exult, when her children are gathered within her in joy. Blessed art thou, O Lord, who makest Zion joyful through her children.
O make these loved companions greatly to rejoice, even as of old thou didst gladden thy creature in the garden of Eden. Blessed art thou, O Lord, who makest bridegroom and bride to rejoice.
Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who hast created joy and gladness, bridegroom and bride, mirth and exultation, pleasure and delight, love, brotherhood, peace and fellowship. Soon may there be heard in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of joy and gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the jubilant voice of bridegrooms from their canopies, and of youths from their feasts of song. Blessed art thou, O Lord, who makest the bridegroom to rejoice with the bride.
Where this text comes from
Traditional, translated by Simeon Singer, The Authorised Daily Prayer Book, first published 1890. This English translation is Simeon Singer’s, first issued in 1890 and quoted here from the Ninth Edition of 1912. It is well before the 1930 line. Modern Reform and Conservative translations are recent and remain in copyright, so use your own community’s prayer book for those.
Reading it aloud
If seven people are reading, print each blessing on its own card with the reader’s name at the top and hand them out before the ceremony rather than during it. Number the cards. The most common failure is two readers convinced they have the fifth.
The seventh is much longer than the other six, so give it to your steadiest reader. And agree in advance whether the Hebrew is being said too, and by whom, so nobody is left holding a card they cannot read.
Christian scripture
The New Testament reading almost every Christian wedding uses, and the Catholic favorite from a book that Protestant bibles usually leave out.
First Corinthians 13
about 45 secondsThe most-read passage at Christian weddings, and it is read at plenty of non-religious ones too, because it is a description of how to behave rather than a statement of belief.
The King James Version renders the Greek word as "charity" where most later translations say "love". If the couple expects to hear "love", choose a modern translation from their own tradition instead and read it from their book.
Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.
And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.
Where this text comes from
Traditional, The Holy Bible, King James Version — 1 Corinthians 13:4–8, 13, first published 1611. From the 1611 King James Version, which is in the public domain in the United States. (In the United Kingdom it remains under Crown letters patent; if you are publishing there rather than reading aloud, check that first.)
Checked against Project Gutenberg: The King James Version of the Bible.
Reading it aloud
The long middle sentence is a list of eleven things, and a reader who takes it at one speed loses the room by item four. Group them in threes, breathe between the groups, and let the pace slow as the list nears its end.
Everybody in the seats has heard this passage before. That is an advantage, not a problem: read it slowly and plainly, and the familiarity does the emotional work for you.
The prayer of Tobias and Sara
about 35 secondsThe classic Catholic wedding reading: two frightened people who pray together on their wedding night and ask, simply, to grow old side by side. Quietly one of the most moving passages available.
This book is in Catholic and Orthodox bibles and not in most Protestant ones, so check which bible the couple’s family reads before you announce it.
Then Tobias exhorted the virgin, and said to her: Sara, arise, and let us pray to God to day, and to morrow, and the next day: because for these three nights we are joined to God: and when the third night is over, we will be in our own wedlock. For we are the children of saints, and we must not be joined together like heathens that know not God.
So they both arose, and prayed earnestly both together that health might be given them. And Tobias said: Lord God of our fathers, may the heavens and the earth, and the sea, and the fountains, and the rivers, and all thy creatures that are in them, bless thee. Thou madest Adam of the slime of the earth, and gavest him Eve for a helper.
Sara also said: Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on us, and let us grow old both together in health.
Where this text comes from
Traditional, The Holy Bible, Douay-Rheims — Tobias 8:4–10, first published 1610. The Douay-Rheims Old Testament was first published by the English College at Douay in 1609 and 1610, and revised by Bishop Richard Challoner between 1749 and 1752. Both are centuries clear of the 1930 line.
Reading it aloud
Everything in the passage is aimed at Sara’s last sentence. Read the first two paragraphs as narration, then change register completely for "let us grow old both together in health" and let it sit.
Two proper nouns need settling in advance: Tobias and Sara are usually said TOE-bye-as and SAIR-ah in English-language services, but ask the family, because plenty of them say it differently and they will notice.
Choosing and reading well
Which translation, and who decides
A passage everybody in the room knows by heart will be heard in whichever wording they learned it in, and a different one registers as a mistake even when it is not. So the translation is not a detail: ask the couple, and if the ceremony is happening inside a church, synagogue, or temple, ask whoever is officiating there, because many houses of worship expect their own version and some require it.
The versions printed on this page are old ones, chosen because they are free for anyone to reprint. That is a publishing constraint, not a recommendation. If the couple’s family reads a modern translation, read theirs from their own book on the day, and use these texts only to choose the passage.
The traditions we describe rather than reprint
Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, Muslim and Orthodox Christian weddings all have texts a couple may want read, and in most cases the English wording in circulation was translated recently and belongs to somebody. We will not reprint those, and a website that does is not being generous, it is being careless with somebody else’s work.
What we can do instead is describe them accurately and send you to the right place, which is below. In practice the couple’s own officiant, temple, gurdwara, mosque or parish will have the wording they use, and it will be the wording the family expects to hear.
What we do not reprint, and why
These come up constantly and every one of them is still in copyright. You may read any of them aloud at your own ceremony; what nobody should do is reprint them in a program or on a website without permission, and that includes us.
- The Saptapadi, the seven steps
The heart of a Hindu wedding: the couple take seven steps together, each one naming something they are asking for: food, strength, prosperity, happiness, children, the seasons, and lifelong friendship.
Why it is not here: The ritual is ancient, but the English translations in general circulation were made recently and belong to their translators, and the older scholarly translations are difficult to verify line by line. We would rather describe it honestly than print a version we cannot source.
Where to get it: Your priest will have the Sanskrit and the wording their tradition uses for each step. Ask them for it early, because a reader who wants to speak the English alongside will need time with the pronunciation.
- Buddhist wedding blessings
Buddhist ceremonies commonly use a discourse on loving-kindness and a passage on the mutual duties of a married couple, both read as a blessing rather than a vow.
Why it is not here: The English translations couples actually use are modern and under copyright, and we could not verify a public-domain translation against its own source while writing this page.
Where to get it: Ask the officiating monk or teacher, or use one of the freely licensed translation libraries that publish these discourses with clear reuse terms.
- Modern denominational rites
Contemporary Catholic, Latter-day Saint, Orthodox and Reform or Conservative Jewish marriage rites and their modern translations.
Why it is not here: All are recent and remain in copyright. Reprinting a living rite as though it were a free template would also be a misrepresentation of what it is.
Where to get it: Your parish, ward, congregation or community publishes the authorized text, and that is the version your family will recognize.
Keep the readings with the rest of the ceremony
RiteBinder is the booking desk and the writing desk in one: the interview, the script, the readings, and a podium that needs no signal on the day. Free to start.
Frequently Asked Questions
- How many readings does a religious wedding usually have?
- Many liturgies specify it: a Catholic nuptial mass typically has an Old Testament reading, a psalm, a New Testament reading, and a gospel, and there is not much room to negotiate. Outside a set liturgy, one or two is normal. Ask whoever is officiating before you promise a role to anyone.
- Can we mix a religious reading with a secular one?
- Usually yes, and it is a common and graceful solution when two families come from different places. Check with the officiant first if the ceremony is inside a house of worship, since some have rules about it. Order matters too: putting the scripture first and the secular piece second tends to read as inclusive rather than as a correction.
- Why is our tradition not printed here?
- Almost certainly because the English translation in general use is modern and still in copyright, which means we may not reproduce it. That is not a judgment about the tradition. Ask your officiant or your community for the wording they use, and read it from their book.
- Is the King James Version really free to use?
- In the United States, yes. It was published in 1611 and no copyright attaches to it there. In the United Kingdom it sits under a perpetual Crown letters patent, which affects publishing rather than reading it aloud, so check that before you print it in a program if you are marrying there.