Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

112 Blessed is the man who fears the LORD and delights greatly in His Commandments.

² His seed shall be mighty upon Earth. The generation of the righteous shall be blessed.

³ Riches and treasures shall be in his house and his righteousness endures forever.

⁴ To the righteous arises light in darkness. He is merciful and full of compassion, and righteous.

⁵ A good man is merciful and lends. He will measure his affairs by judgment.

⁶ Surely, he shall never be moved. The righteous shall be held in everlasting remembrance.

⁷ He will not be afraid of evil tidings. His heart is fixed, believing in the LORD.

⁸ His heart is established. He will not fear, until he sees his desire upon his enemies.

⁹ He has distributed, given to the poor. His righteousness remains forever. His horn shall be exalted with glory.

¹⁰ The wicked shall see it and be angry. He shall gnash with his teeth and melt away. The desire of the wicked shall perish. Praise the LORD

¹³ “If a man takes a wife, and after he has lain with her, hates her,

¹⁴ “and then says slanderous things about her, brings a bad name upon her, and says, ‘I took this wife, and when I came to her, I did not find her to be a maid’,

¹⁵ “then the father of the maid and her mother shall take and bring the signs of the maid’s virginity to the elders of the city, to the gate.

¹⁶ “And the maid’s father shall say to the elders, ‘I gave my daughter to this man to be his wife and he hates her.

¹⁷ ‘And lo, he says slanderous things about her, saying, “I did not find your daughter to be a maid.” Lo, these are the signs of my daughter’s virginity.’ And they shall spread the cloth before the elders of the city.

¹⁸ “Then the elders of the city shall take that man and discipline him,

¹⁹ “and shall fine him a hundred shekels of silver and give them to the father of the maid, because he has brought a bad name upon a maid of Israel. And she shall be his wife. And he may not divorce her the rest of his life.

²⁰ “But if this thing is true, meaning the maid is not found to be a virgin,

²¹ “then they shall bring forth the maid to the door of her father’s house. And the men of her city shall stone her with stones until death. For she has worked folly in Israel by playing the whore in her father’s house. So you shall put evil away from among you.

²² “If a man is found lying with a woman who is married to a man, then both of them shall die, the man who lays with the wife and the wife. So you shall put away evil from Israel.

²³ “If a maid is engaged to a husband, and a man finds her in the town and lies with her,

²⁴ “then you shall bring them both out to the gates of the same city and shall stone them with stones until death, the maid because she did not cry out in the city and the man because he has humbled his neighbor’s wife. So you shall put away evil from among you.

²⁵ “But if a man finds an engaged maid in the field and forces her, and lies with her, then the man who lays with her shall die alone:

²⁶ “And you shall do nothing to the maid, because there is in the maid no cause for death. For as when a man rises against his neighbor and mortally wounds him, so is this matter.

²⁷ “For he found her in the fields, the engaged maid cried out, and there was no one to save her.

²⁸ “If a man finds a maid who is not engaged, and takes her and lies with her, and they are found,

²⁹ “then the man who lays with her shall give fifty shekels of silver to the maid’s father. And she shall be his wife, because he has humbled her. He cannot divorce her the rest of his life.

³⁰ “No man shall take his father’s wife or shall uncover his father’s extremity.”

7 Now, concerning the things about which you wrote to me, it is good for a man not to touch a woman.

² Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have a wife for himself, and let every woman have her own husband.

³ Let the husband give to the wife her due affection, and likewise also the wife to the husband.

⁴ The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband. And likewise, also the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife.

⁵ Do not deprive one another, unless with consent for a time, that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer. And come together again, so that Satan does not tempt you for your intemperance.

⁶ Yet, I speak this by permission, not by Commandment.

⁷ For I would that all were still as I myself. But everyone has his proper gift from God, one after this manner, and another after that.

⁸ Therefore I say to the unmarried, and to the widows, it is good for them if they remain just as I.

⁹ But if they cannot abstain, let them marry. For it is better to marry than to burn.