Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Psalm 112

The Traits of the Righteous

Violations of Proper Sexual Conduct

¹³ “If a man marries a woman, has sexual relations with her, and comes to hate her, ¹⁴ and accuses her of shameful conduct, and gives her a bad name, saying, ‘I married this woman and was intimate with her, but I didn’t find any evidence of her virginity,’ ¹⁵ the young woman’s father and mother will take the evidence of her virginity and bring it to the city elders at the gate.^{(A) 16} The young woman’s father will say to the elders, ‘I gave my daughter to this man as a wife, but he hates her. ¹⁷ He has accused her of shameful conduct, saying: “I didn’t find any evidence of your daughter’s virginity,” but here is the evidence of my daughter’s virginity.’ They will spread out the cloth before the city elders. ¹⁸ Then the elders of that city will take the man and punish him.^{(B) 19} They will also fine him 100 silver shekels and give them to the young woman’s father, because that man gave an Israelite virgin a bad name. She will remain his wife; he cannot divorce her as long as he lives. ²⁰ But if this accusation is true and no evidence of the young woman’s virginity is found, ²¹ they will bring the woman to the door of her father’s house, and the men of her city will stone her to death. For she has committed an outrage in Israel by being promiscuous in her father’s house. You must purge the evil from you.

²² “If a man is discovered having sexual relations with another man’s wife, both the man who had sex with the woman and the woman must die. You must purge the evil from Israel. ²³ If there is a young woman who is a virgin engaged to a man, and another man encounters her in the city and has sex with her, ²⁴ you must take the two of them out to the gate of that city and stone them to death—the young woman because she did not cry out in the city and the man because he has violated his neighbor’s fiancée. You must purge the evil from you. ²⁵ But if the man encounters an engaged woman in the open country, and he seizes and rapes her, only the man who raped her must die. ²⁶ Do nothing to the young woman, because she is not guilty of an offense deserving death. This case is just like one in which a man attacks his neighbor and murders him. ²⁷ When he found her in the field, the engaged woman cried out, but there was no one to rescue her. ²⁸ If a man encounters a young woman, a virgin who is not engaged, takes hold of her and rapes her, and they are discovered, ²⁹ the man who raped her must give the young woman’s father 50 silver shekels, and she must become his wife because he violated her.^(C) He cannot divorce her as long as he lives.

³⁰ “A man is not to marry his father’s wife; he must not violate his father’s marriage bed.^[a][b](D)

Principles of Marriage

7 Now in response to the matters you wrote^[a] about: “It is good for a man not to have relations with^[b] a woman.”^{[c] 2} But because sexual immorality is so common,^[d](A) each man should have his own wife,^(B) and each woman should have her own husband. ³ A husband should fulfill his marital responsibility^(C) to his wife, and likewise a wife to her husband. ⁴ A wife does not have the right over her own body, but her husband does. In the same way, a husband does not have the right over his own body, but his wife does. ⁵ Do not deprive^(D) one another sexually—except when you agree for a time, to devote yourselves to^[e] prayer. Then come together again; otherwise, Satan may tempt you because of your lack of self-control. ⁶ I say the following^[f] as a concession, not as a command. ⁷ I wish that all people were just like me. But each has his own gift^(E) from God, one person in this way and another in that way.

A Word to the Unmarried

⁸ I say to the unmarried and to widows:^(F) It is good for them if they remain as I am. ⁹ But if they do not have self-control,^(G) they should marry, for it is better to marry^(H) than to burn with desire.