Every text below is quoted from the book named beside it, with a note on what a couple may and may not alter. Where a tradition has more than one authorised form, all of them are here.
No. “For better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health” is not scripture. It comes from the medieval Sarum marriage rite and Thomas Cranmer’s 1549 Book of Common Prayer. The Bible is quoted at almost every Christian wedding, but it contains no vow text — nowhere in it does anyone say a marriage vow.
What the Bible gives you instead is the reasoning: marriage as a covenant witnessed by God, and a great deal of language about love that couples fold into their promises. Both are below.
Quoted from the King James Version, which is public domain and the wording most couples recognise. Your church may read from a modern translation — the sense is the same, the phrasing is not.
The covenant language
Yet ye say, Wherefore? Because the LORD hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously: yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant.
The nearest the Bible comes to naming a marriage vow: the wife is “the wife of thy covenant,” with God as witness to it. This verse is the backbone of the Christian argument that marriage is a covenant rather than a contract.
One flesh
Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.
Read at weddings across almost every Christian tradition, and quoted back by Jesus in Mark 10 and Matthew 19.
“Let not man put asunder”
But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife; And they twain shall be one flesh: so then they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.
The source of the line most officiants say immediately after the vows — “What God hath joined together, let no one put asunder.” It is the one piece of scripture that made it into the liturgy nearly word for word.
Twelve more passages, with the wording set out for use inside a vow, are at wedding vows with Bible verses.
One authorised form from each, with the full set of options on the linked page.
The Order of Celebrating Matrimony · prescribed
I, N., take you, N., to be my wife. I promise to be faithful to you, in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health, to love you and to honor you all the days of my life.
Form A of four authorised forms. Catholic consent may not be replaced with vows of your own. All four forms, the questions before the consent, the rings and the arras are at Catholic wedding vows.
Common Worship, 2000 · set by law
I, N, take you, N, to be my wife, to have and to hold from this day forward; for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death us do part; according to God’s holy law. In the presence of God I make this vow.
The current Church of England vow. A version replacing “to love and to cherish” with “to love, cherish, and obey” is offered as an alternative the couple must actively choose. The vows are legally binding and cannot be reworded — see traditional wedding vows for the 1662 text this descends from.
The Book of Common Prayer, 1979
In the Name of God, I, N., take you, N., to be my wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, until we are parted by death. This is my solemn vow.
Note “until we are parted by death” and “this is my solemn vow” in place of the older troth line. No version of this rite contains “obey.” The declaration of consent and ring wording are at other traditions.
The United Methodist Book of Worship, 1992
In the name of God, I, N., take you, N., to be my wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, until we are parted by death. This is my solemn vow.
Close enough to the Episcopal text to be mistaken for it; the distinguishing opening is “In the name of God.” Methodist, Presbyterian, Baptist and non-denominational wording is compared side by side at Christian wedding vows.
Lutheran Book of Worship, 1978
I take you, N., to be my wife, from this day forward, to join with you and share all that is to come, and I promise to be faithful to you until death parts us.
Introduced in the book as “these or similar words,” so it is a model rather than a fixed formula — Lutheran practice varies more than most. Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006) is the current ELCA book; ask your pastor which text your congregation uses.
Traditional Friends declaration
In the presence of God and these our friends, I, N., take thee, N., to be my wife, promising with divine assistance to be unto thee a loving and faithful husband so long as we both shall live.
There is no officiant. The couple rise during a meeting for worship when they feel ready and say this to each other; the meeting itself is the witness, and everyone present signs the marriage certificate afterwards.
The kiddushin declaration
Harei at mekudeshet li b’taba’at zo k’dat Moshe v’Yisrael.
Behold, you are consecrated to me with this ring according to the law of Moses and Israel.
A traditional Jewish wedding has no vows at all. The marriage is effected by the groom placing the ring on the bride’s finger before two witnesses and saying this line; the bride’s traditional role is to accept it in silence. Many contemporary ceremonies add a reciprocal declaration — see other traditions.
Ask your officiant which authorised form your service uses, and ask early. Books get revised, provinces differ, and a text that is correct for a United States diocese may not be the one used in England, Ireland or Australia. The wording on this page is quoted from the books named beside it — but the book on your officiant’s desk is the one that will be read from on the day.
If your ceremony is civil or secular, the wording — and the legal minimum — is at non-religious wedding vows.