“Thou shalt love thy wife with all thy heart, and shalt cleave unto her and none else” (Doctrine and Covenants 42:22)
BYU professors Stephen Robinson and Dean Garrett note: “This verb [cleave] has two almost contradictory meanings: ‘to split or separate,’ as in cleaving firewood, and ‘to bond or stick to,’ as in spouses cleaving to one another. The usage here might be understood colloquially as a command to ‘stick like glue’” (Commentary on the Doctrine and Covenants, 1:82–83). This built-in contradiction sheds light on how God connects with us, and how we connect with others.
Let’s look at the two different ways authors use the word “cleave” in the scriptures.
Cleave: To Split or Divide
This meaning, primarily found in the Old Testament, describes a forceful parting or breaking apart. It is used to render several Hebrew words, such as bâqa‛ (splitting wood, rocks, or water) and shâsa‛ (tearing or splitting without complete separation).
Crucially, this sense of “cleave” is foundational to the concept of “cutting a covenant” (kārat berît in Hebrew).
Ancient Covenant-Making Rituals: In ancient Near Eastern cultures, a covenant often became legally binding through the act of killing and cutting an animal into two pieces, with parties passing between the divided parts. This ritual graphically illustrated the fate of the party who would violate the agreement.
Jehovah and Abram: In Genesis 15, Abram slaughtered and divided animals, and then a smoking furnace and burning lamp, representing God’s presence, passed between the pieces. This symbolized God swearing an oath, effectively pledging His own life if He did not fulfill His promises, demonstrating the absolute certainty of His commitment. This “cutting” made the covenant incredibly sure.
Zedekiah and Judah: Jeremiah 34 provides another example where Zedekiah and the people of Judah cut a covenant by dividing a calf. Those who broke this covenant were to “become like the calf which they cut in two,” handed over to their enemies to be slaughtered and left for birds and beasts. This shows the severe consequences of violating such a sacred agreement.
Cutting or Dividing in Other Scriptures: The “cutting” symbolism echoes in other divine interactions such as circumcision, this “token of the Abrahamic covenant,” involved a physical “cutting”. It carried a penalty of being “cut off” (using the same Hebrew verb kārat) if the covenant was broken.
The Sinai Covenant: It involved the sprinkling of sacrificial blood, with half on the altar and half on the people, symbolizing their identification with the sacrificed animal and the fate expected for violating their promise.
The Prophecy of the Mount of Olives: The mount of Olives will cleave in two (Zechariah 14: Doctrine and Covenants 45:48) before the Lord’s coming. This can be seen as recalling the divided animals, symbolizing a new covenant or the fulfillment of a covenant.
Christ as the “Cut Covenant”: The concept of “cutting a covenant” extends to Jesus Christ Himself. His wounds and suffering on the cross are seen as the covenant “literally cut into him,” signifying that He is the karat berît (the “cut covenant”) that brings “at-one-ment” or reconciliation.
Cleave: To Stick, Adhere, or Join
This meaning, a complete reversal of the first, signifies a strong attachment or close union. The most common Hebrew word for this meaning is dâbaq (or davak), meaning “to cling” or “stick to,” like glue, and “to adhere firmly”. New Testament writers use Greek words like kollaō (“to glue together”) and proskollaō (“glue upon,” “join oneself to”).
This sense of “cleaving” is central to understanding both marital and divine relationships:
1. Cleaving in Marriage:
- Intimate Union: Genesis 2:24 offers the well-known example: “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh”. This “cleaving” represents a profound, enduring, and covenant-based connection that is not just physical but also spiritual and emotional. This coming together makes them “one,” like a “team of two acting as one”. It’s always changing. Cleaving remains a “work in progress”, meaning dedication despite difficulties. The marriage relationship is presented as “ordained of God” and serves as a fundamental pattern.
- The Church’s General Handbook provides this insight: “God has commanded husbands and wives to cleave to each other (see Genesis 2:24; Doctrine and Covenants 42:22). In this context, the word cleave means to be completely devoted and faithful to someone. Married couples cleave together by loving and serving each other. Cleaving also includes total fidelity between husband and wife. Physical intimacy between husband and wife is intended to be beautiful and sacred. It is ordained of God for the creation of children and for the expression of love between husband and wife. Tenderness and respect-not selfishness— should guide their intimate relationship” (Handbook 2 .1. 2).
2. Cleaving to God:
- Commanded Loyalty: The Bible frequently commands believers to “cleave” to God, particularly in Deuteronomy and Joshua, meaning to “cling to Him”. Also, this command is repeated in Doctrine and Covenants 11:19. This involves loyalty, faithfulness, and a wholehearted commitment to His commandments and ways.
- “Passion” for God: This “cleaving to the Lord” (devakut) is described as “passion”. It signifies a deep “fervour of spirit”, a determined fight to break through challenges, and a refusal to be distracted or intimidated. It means “sticking to it and sticking with it” through thick and thin.
- Relational Knowledge: In Hebrew thought, “knowledge” (yada) is not merely intellectual but “experiential and relational,” meaning one is deeply involved with what one knows. God’s “knowing” of His people implies fellowship, concern, protection, and active involvement in their lives. Cleaving to God leads to this profound, relational knowledge of Him.
- God’s Prior Cleaving: We are asked to cleave to God because God has already cleaved to us first. He has pledged His truth, vowed, and promised Himself to be loyal, faithful, and true to us. This is demonstrated through divine acts like cleaving the Red Sea to save His people from Egypt or cleaving the rock in the desert to give them water. We also have many examples in the Book of Mormon and Church History.
- Cleave to God’s Word: “And I give unto you a commandment, that ye shall forsake all evil and cleave unto all good, that ye shall live by every word which proceedeth forth out of the mouth of God” (Doctrine and Covenants 98:11).
The word “cleave” embodies the covenant process. It demonstrates that relationships start when people “cut a covenant” to produce intense, profound, and resolute ties. The dual significance emphasizes the importance of God’s promises, as well as the loyalty, trust, and transformation he expects from a relationship with him, whether marital or direct. We detach from the world to attach to Him.
As President Nelson notes the blessing that “cleave” signifies is a deep, unifying connection—whether it’s the sacred bond between spouses leading to eternal exaltation, or the continuous spiritual pursuit of knowledge and truth that leads to greater enlightenment and oneness with God (see “Spiritual Capacity,” Ensign, Nov. 1997 and “Celestial Marriage,” Ensign, Nov. 2008).
Power of Cleaving
Cleaving to God and Covenants unlocks the power of heaven. Emma Smith, the first Relief Society president was told: “Cleave unto the covenants which thou hast made” (Doctrine and Covenants 25:13). “The first Relief Society sisters were, like the ancient people of Ammon, ‘distinguished for their zeal towards God’ and were ‘firm in the faith of Christ.’ They had been taught by the Prophet Joseph Smith, and they had been blessed through their formal organization under the authority of the priesthood. Now they needed the blessings of the temple.
“More than 5,000 Saints thronged the Nauvoo Temple after its dedication so they could receive the endowment and the sealing ordinance before embarking on their journey into an unknown future. They came to the temple all day and long into the night. President Brigham Young wrote that they were so anxious to receive their ordinances that “I have given myself up entirely to the work of the Lord in the Temple night and day, not taking more than four hours sleep, upon an average, per day, and going home but once a week.”
“The strength, power, and blessings of temple covenants would sustain the Latter-day Saints during their journey, when they would suffer cold, heat, hunger, poverty, sickness, accidents, and death. They were strengthened and empowered—spiritually prepared to leave Nauvoo on their arduous journey into the wilderness.
“Like many Relief Society sisters, Sarah Rich was buoyed by temple blessings as she faced the challenges of the exodus. Prior to leaving Nauvoo, she received a calling from Brigham Young to work in the temple. She later said:
“‘Many were the blessings we had received in the house of the Lord, which has caused us joy and comfort in the midst of all our sorrows and enabled us to have faith in God, knowing He would guide us and sustain us in the unknown journey that lay before us. For if it had not been for the faith and knowledge that was bestowed upon us in that temple by the influence and help of the Spirit of the Lord, our journey would have been like one taking a leap in the dark. To start out … in the winter as it were and in our state of poverty, it would seem like walking into the jaws of death. But we had faith in our Heavenly Father, and we put our trust in Him feeling that we were His chosen people and had embraced His gospel, and instead of sorrow, we felt to rejoice that the day of our deliverance had come.’
“As Sister Rich implied, the exodus was not a ‘leap in the dark’ for faithful Latter-day Saint women. They were sustained by their covenants. Like the children of Israel anciently, they followed a prophet into the wilderness in the hope of deliverance. In preparation for the exodus, President Brigham Young made the following declaration to the Saints: “This shall be our covenant—that we will walk in all the ordinances of the Lord.’ Latter-day Saints walked into the wilderness bound by covenant to God, their families, and their fellow sojourners” (“Cleave unto the Covenants,” in Daughters in My Kingdom: The History and Work of Relief Society, 29–30).
