Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Good Comes to the Person Who Honors the Lord

112 Praise the Lord! How happy is the man who honors the Lord with fear and finds joy in His Law! ² His children will be powerful in the land. Each family who is right will be happy. ³ Riches and well-being are in his house. And his right-standing with God will last forever. ⁴ Light rises even in darkness for the one who is right. He is kind and has loving-pity and does what is right. ⁵ Good will come to the man who is ready to give much, and fair in what he does. ⁶ He will never be shaken. The man who is right and good will be remembered forever. ⁷ He will not be afraid of bad news. His heart is strong because he trusts in the Lord. ⁸ His heart will not be shaken. He will not be afraid and will watch those lose who fight against him. ⁹ He has given much to the poor. His right-standing with God lasts forever. His horn will be lifted high in honor.

¹⁰ The sinful man will see it and be troubled and angry. He will grind his teeth and waste away. The desire of the sinful will come to nothing.

24 “When a man takes a wife and marries her, and he does not like her because he finds something bad in her, he will write her a paper of divorce and give it to her and send her away from his house. ² When she leaves his house, she may go and become another man’s wife. ³ If the second husband turns against her and gives her a paper of divorce and sends her out of his house, or if the second husband dies who took her for his wife, ⁴ then her first husband who sent her away is not allowed to take her for his wife again, because she has become unclean. It is a hated thing to the Lord and you must not bring sin on the land the Lord your God is giving you.

⁵ “When a man takes a new wife, he must not go with the army or be given any other work. He should be free to be at home one year to make the wife he has taken happy.

¹⁰ I have this to say to those who are married. These words are from the Lord. A wife should not leave her husband, ¹¹ but if she does leave him, she should not get married to another man. It would be better for her to go back to her husband. The husband should not divorce his wife. ¹² I have this to say. These words are not from the Lord. If a Christian husband has a wife who is not a Christian, and she wants to live with him, he must not divorce her. ¹³ If a Christian wife has a husband who is not a Christian, and he wants to live with her, she must not divorce him. ¹⁴ The husband who is not a Christian is set apart from the sin of the world because of his Christian wife. The wife who is not a Christian is set apart from the sin of the world because of her Christian husband. In this way, the lives of the children are not unclean because of sin, they are clean. ¹⁵ If the one who is not a Christian wants to leave, let that one go. The Christian husband or wife should not try to make the other one stay. God wants you to live in peace. ¹⁶ Christian wife, how do you know you will not help your husband to become a Christian? Or Christian husband, how do you know you will not help your wife to become a Christian?