Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Psalm 112^[a]

The Blessings of the Righteous

¹ Alleluia.

¹³ Rules for Sexual Relationships. If a man takes a woman and has sex with her, but then he grows to hate her ¹⁴ and he charges her with shameful deeds and publicly defames her name saying, “I married this woman, but when I approached her I discovered that she was not a virgin,” ¹⁵ have the father and mother of the young woman give proof of the young woman’s virginity to the elders at the town gate.^{[a] 16} The young woman’s father will say to the elders, “I gave my daughter to this man to be his wife, and he has grown to hate her. ¹⁷ Now he has slandered her saying, ‘I discovered that your daughter was not a virgin.’ Here is proof of my daughter’s virginity.” They will then spread the cloth out before the elders. ¹⁸ The elders will take the man and punish him. ¹⁹ They will fine him one hundred shekels of silver and give them to the father of the young woman because this man defamed the name of one of the virgins of Israel. She will continue to be his wife, and he cannot divorce her as long as he lives. ²⁰ If, however, the charge is true and there is no proof of the young woman’s virginity, ²¹ she is to be brought to the door of her father’s house and there the men of the town will stone her to death. She did a disgraceful thing in Israel, committing fornication in her father’s house. You must purge this evil from your midst.^[b]

²² If a man is discovered sleeping with another man’s wife, both the man who slept with the woman and the woman must be put to death. You must purge the evil from Israel.

²³ If a man encounters a young woman who is betrothed to another man and he sleeps with her, ²⁴ you shall take both of them to the city gate and stone them to death, the young woman because she was inside of the city and did not cry out, and the man because he violated his neighbor’s wife. You must purge the evil from among you.

²⁵ But if a man encounters a young woman betrothed to another man in the countryside and he overcomes her and has sex with her, then only the man who has done this is to die. ²⁶ Do nothing to the young woman, for she has not committed a sin deserving death. This matter is just like when a man attacks and murders his neighbor, ²⁷ for the man found the young woman in the countryside, and though the betrothed might have screamed out, there was no one there to rescue her.

²⁸ If a man encounters a young woman who is a virgin but she is not betrothed, and he overcomes her and has sex with her and they are discovered, ²⁹ he must pay the young woman’s father fifty shekels of silver. He must marry the young woman, for he has violated her, and he can never divorce her for as long as he lives.

Marriage and Celibacy among Christians^[a]

Chapter 7

Christian Marriage.^{[b] 1} Now I will move on to the matters about which you wrote. Yes, it is a good thing for a man to refrain from touching a woman. ² However, to avoid the temptation to immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband. ³ A husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise a wife should fulfill her conjugal obligations to her husband. ⁴ For a wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise, a husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does.

⁵ Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by mutual consent for a specified time so as to devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan may not tempt you by taking advantage of your lack of self-control. ⁶ I suggest this not as a command but by way of concession. ⁷ I wish that all of you would be as I myself am. However, each person has a particular gift from God, one having one kind and another a different kind.

⁸ To the unmarried and to widows, I say that it is a good thing for them to remain as they are, as I do. ⁹ However, if they are unable to exercise self-control, they should marry, for it is better to be married than to burn with passion.