Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

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 cast among the dead like the slain that lie in the grave, whom Thou rememberest no more, and who 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 acquaintances 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 show 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 come before 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 distraught.

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 acquaintances into darkness.

¹⁹ “‘And if a woman have an issue and her issue from her flesh be blood, she shall be put apart seven days; and whosoever toucheth her shall be unclean until the evening.

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 evening.

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

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 evening.

²⁴ And if any man lie with her at all and her monthly discharge 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 evening.

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 turtledoves 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 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 Now concerning the ministering to the saints, it is superfluous for me to write to you.

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

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

⁴ lest it might happen, if those of Macedonia come with me and find you unprepared, that we (that we say not “ye”) should be ashamed in this same confident boasting.

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