Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

A Song or Psalm for the sons of Korah, to the Overcomer: to sing upon Mahalath, Maschil of Heman the Ezrahite.

¹ ¶ O LORD God of my saving health, I cry 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 draws near unto Sheol.

⁴ I am counted with those that go down into the pit; I am as a man that has no strength:

⁵ Freed among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, whom thou dost remember 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 lies 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 My eye mourns 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 mercy be declared in the grave? or thy truth in hell?

¹² Shall thy wonder be known in darkness? 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 dost thou cast off my soul? why dost thou hide thy face from me?

¹⁵ I am afflicted and destitute; from my youth up I have feared thee and been in awe of thee.

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

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

¹⁸ Thou hast put lover and friend far from me, and placed my acquaintances into darkness.

¹⁹ ¶ And when the woman has an issue of blood and her issue is in her flesh, she shall be put apart seven days, and whoever touches her shall be unclean until the evening.

²⁰ And everything that she lies upon in her separation shall be unclean; everything also that she sits upon shall be unclean.

²¹ And whoever touches her bed shall wash his clothes and bathe himself with water and be unclean until the evening.

²² Also whoever touches any thing that she sat upon shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and be unclean until the evening.

²³ And if any thing was on the bed or on any thing upon which she sat, he that touches it shall be unclean until the evening.

²⁴ And if any man sleeps with her and her uncleanness comes upon him, he shall be unclean seven days; and any bed upon which he sleeps shall be unclean.

²⁵ And the woman when she has an issue of her blood many days out of the time of her separation or if it runs 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 upon which she sleeps all the days of her issue shall be unto her as the bed of her separation; and whatever she sits upon shall be unclean, as the uncleanness of her separation.

²⁷ Whoever touches these things shall be unclean and shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and be unclean until the evening.

²⁸ But when she is clean 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 testimony;

³⁰ and the priest shall offer the one as sin and the other as a burnt offering; and the priest shall reconcile her before the LORD of the issue of her uncleanness.

³¹ Thus shall ye separate the sons of Israel from their uncleanness; and they shall not die for their uncleanness defiling my tabernacle that is among them.

9 ¶ For regarding the ministering to the saints, it is superfluous for me to write to you:

² For I know your ready desire, for which I gloried of you to those of Macedonia, that Achaia was ready a year ago, and your zeal has provoked many.

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

⁴ lest haply if those of Macedonia come with me and find you unprepared, we (that we say not, ye) should be ashamed of this our confidence.

⁵ Therefore I thought it necessary to exhort the brethren, that they would first go unto you and prepare beforehand your blessing, of which ye had given notice before that the same might be ready as a blessing, and not as of covetousness.