Amor de casal
O amor de casal é celebrado na Bíblia como dom sagrado. O Cântico dos Cânticos exalta a beleza do amor conjugal — íntimo, exclusivo e forte como a morte.
Set me as a seal upon thy heart,
As a seal upon thine arm;
For love is strong as death;
Jealousy is cruel as the grave,
Her shafts are shafts of fire, even the flames thereof.
Much water will not be able to quench love,
And rivers shall not drown it;
If a man would give all his substance for love,
Men would utterly despise it.
My sister, my spouse,
Thou hast ravished my heart;
Thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes,
With one chain of thy neck.
Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth:
For thy breasts are better than wine.
And the smell of thine ointments is better than all spices:
Thy name is ointment poured forth;
Therefore do the young maidens love thee.
Behold, thou art fair, my companion;
Behold, thou art fair; thine eyes are doves.
Behold, thou art fair, my kinsman,
Yea, beautiful, overshadowing our bed.
And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone, let us make for him a help suitable to him.
And God formed the rib which he took from Adam into a woman, and brought her to Adam. And Adam said, This now is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman, because she was taken out of her husband. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave to his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.
He that has found a good wife has found favors,
And has received gladness from God.
He that puts away a good wife, puts away a good thing,
And he that keeps an adulteress is foolish and ungodly.
Let thy fountain of water be truly thine own;
And rejoice with the wife of thy youth.
Let thy loving hart and thy graceful colt company with thee,
And let her be considered thine own, and be with thee at all times;
For ravished with her love thou shalt be greatly increased.
Be not intimate with a strange woman,
Neither fold thyself in the arms of a woman not thine own.
Two are better than one,
Seeing they have a good reward for their labor.
For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow:
But woe to him that is alone when he falls,
And there is not a second to lift him up.
Also if two should lie together, they also get heat:
But how shall one be warmed alone?
And if one should prevail against him,
The two shall withstand him;
And a threefold cord shall not be quickly broken.
And did he not do well? and there was the residue of his spirit. But ye said, What does God seek but a seed? But take ye heed to your spirit, and forsake not the wife of thy youth.
And if anyone should have recently taken a wife, he shall not go out to war, neither shall anything be laid upon him; he shall be free in his house; for one year he shall cheer his wife whom he has taken.