Several of the lines in Offred/June's opening voiceover monologue quote or closely parallel the words in chapter 2 of Margaret Atwood's 1986 novel that inspired the series, which read: "...this could be a college guest room, for the less distinguished visitors; or a room in a rooming house, of former times, for ladies in reduced circumstances. That is what we are now. The circumstances have been reduced; for those of us who still have circumstances. But a chair, sunlight, flowers: these are not to be dismissed. I am alive, I live, I breathe...."
When Commander Waterford is trying to persuade his wife to join him for the trade meeting in Canada, he quotes directly from the Biblical book of Proverbs 31:10 - "Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies."