88 O lord God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before thee:

² Let my prayer come before thee: incline thine ear unto my cry;

³ For my soul is full of troubles: and my life draweth nigh unto the grave.

⁴ I am counted with them that go down into the pit: I am as a man that hath no strength:

⁵ Free among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, whom thou rememberest no more: and they are cut off from thy hand.

⁶ Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps.

⁷ Thy wrath lieth hard upon me, and thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves. Selah.

⁸ Thou hast put away mine acquaintance far from me; thou hast made me an abomination unto them: I am shut up, and I cannot come forth.

⁹ Mine eye mourneth by reason of affliction: Lord, I have called daily upon thee, I have stretched out my hands unto thee.

¹⁰ Wilt thou shew wonders to the dead? shall the dead arise and praise thee? Selah.

¹¹ Shall thy lovingkindness be declared in the grave? or thy faithfulness in destruction?

¹² Shall thy wonders be known in the dark? and thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?

¹³ But unto thee have I cried, O Lord; and in the morning shall my prayer prevent thee.

¹⁴ Lord, why castest thou off my soul? why hidest thou thy face from me?

¹⁵ I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up: while I suffer thy terrors I am distracted.

¹⁶ Thy fierce wrath goeth over me; thy terrors have cut me off.

¹⁷ They came round about me daily like water; they compassed me about together.

¹⁸ Lover and friend hast thou put far from me, and mine acquaintance into darkness.

¹⁹ And if a woman have an issue, and her issue in her flesh be blood, she shall be put apart seven days: and whosoever toucheth her shall be unclean until the even.

²⁰ And every thing that she lieth upon in her separation shall be unclean: every thing also that she sitteth upon shall be unclean.

²¹ And whosoever toucheth her bed shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even.

²² And whosoever toucheth any thing that she sat upon shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even.

²³ And if it be on her bed, or on any thing whereon she sitteth, when he toucheth it, he shall be unclean until the even.

²⁴ And if any man lie with her at all, and her flowers be upon him, he shall be unclean seven days; and all the bed whereon he lieth shall be unclean.

²⁵ And if a woman have an issue of her blood many days out of the time of her separation, or if it run beyond the time of her separation; all the days of the issue of her uncleanness shall be as the days of her separation: she shall be unclean.

²⁶ Every bed whereon she lieth all the days of her issue shall be unto her as the bed of her separation: and whatsoever she sitteth upon shall be unclean, as the uncleanness of her separation.

²⁷ And whosoever toucheth those things shall be unclean, and shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even.

²⁸ But if she be cleansed of her issue, then she shall number to herself seven days, and after that she shall be clean.

²⁹ And on the eighth day she shall take unto her two turtles, or two young pigeons, and bring them unto the priest, to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.

³⁰ And the priest shall offer the one for a sin offering, and the other for a burnt offering; and the priest shall make an atonement for her before the Lord for the issue of her uncleanness.

³¹ Thus shall ye separate the children of Israel from their uncleanness; that they die not in their uncleanness, when they defile my tabernacle that is among them.

9 For as touching the ministering to the saints, it is superfluous for me to write to you:

² For I know the forwardness of your mind, for which I boast of you to them of Macedonia, that Achaia was ready a year ago; and your zeal hath provoked very many.

³ Yet have I sent the brethren, lest our boasting of you should be in vain in this behalf; that, as I said, ye may be ready:

⁴ Lest haply if they of Macedonia come with me, and find you unprepared, we (that we say not, ye) should be ashamed in this same confident boasting.

⁵ Therefore I thought it necessary to exhort the brethren, that they would go before unto you, and make up beforehand your bounty, whereof ye had notice before, that the same might be ready, as a matter of bounty, and not as of covetousness.