Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Psalm 112[a]
1 Praise the Eternal!
How blessed are those who revere the Eternal,
who turn from evil and take great pleasure in His commandments.
2 Their children will be a powerful force upon the earth;
this generation that does what is right in God’s eyes will be blessed.
3 His house will be stocked with wealth and riches,
and His love for justice will endure for all time.
4 When life is dark, a light will shine for those who live rightly—
those who are merciful, compassionate, and strive for justice.
5 Good comes to all who are gracious and share freely;
they conduct their affairs with sound judgment.
6 Nothing will ever rattle them;
the just will always be remembered.
7 They will not be afraid when the news is bad
because they have resolved to trust in the Eternal.
8 Their hearts are confident, and they are fearless,
for they expect to see their enemies defeated.
9 They give freely to the poor;
their righteousness endures for all time;[b]
their strength and power is established in honor.
10 The wicked will be infuriated when they see the good man honored!
They will clench their teeth and dissolve to nothing;
and when they go, their wicked desires will follow.
The laws in the next group all address cases where sexual relations may have taken place outside of lawful marriage. This is considered not just immoral but also a threat to a foundational institution of Israelite society—the family. Sexual indiscretion is therefore punished with execution, in order to remove the threat from the midst of the community. In a context where a rival pagan value system exerts a constant push away from the pattern of life God outlined, such bold consequences are necessary to keep the nation on track while forming this new type of society.
Moses: 13 What if a man marries a woman and has sexual relations with her, but he ends up hating her, 14 falsely accuses her of shameful things, and slanders her publicly, saying, “I married this woman, but then I discovered she wasn’t a virgin”? 15 If this happens, the girl’s father and mother can clear her name by providing evidence of her virginity to the elders in a legal proceeding at the city gate. 16 The girl’s father may tell the elders, “I gave my daughter to this man as his wife. But now he dislikes her 17 and has falsely accused her, telling me, ‘I found out your daughter wasn’t a virgin!’ But here is the evidence of my daughter’s virginity.” If the parents can provide the evidence by spreading out the cloth for the elders to see, 18 the city elders must punish the husband. He is to be beaten 19 and then fined two and a half pounds of silver, twice the amount of the bride price he paid before the marriage, which will be given to the girl’s father because this man publicly slandered one of Israel’s virgins. He can’t ever divorce her after this; he has to keep her as his wife. 20 But if the charge is true, and the girl wasn’t a virgin, 21 then bring her to the door of her father’s house. There the people of her city will stone her to death because she did something no Israelite should ever do: she was a fornicator while she was living in her father’s house! Expel the wicked from your own community.[a]
22 If it’s discovered that a man has been having sexual relations with a married woman, both the man and the woman must be put to death. Expel the wicked from Israel this way.
23 What if a man meets a girl who’s a virgin but who’s engaged to someone else, and he has sexual relations with her? If this happens in the city, 24 bring them both out to the gate of that city where the public will stone them to death: the girl, because she was in the city and could have cried for help but didn’t, meaning she consented; and the man, because he violated another man’s wife. Expel the wicked from your community this way. 25 But if this happens out in the country—if a man finds an engaged girl out there and overpowers and rapes her—then only the man must die. 26-27 But don’t do anything to the girl; she did nothing wrong and doesn’t deserve to die. When this man came after her, she cried for help, but no one was there to respond. She’s as innocent as the victim of a sudden murderous attack—there was nothing she could do.
28 If a man meets a girl who’s a virgin and who isn’t engaged to someone else, and he forces himself on her, when what he’s done is discovered, 29 he must pay 20 ounces of silver to her father as a bride price, and she will become his wife. He can’t ever divorce her after this because he’s dishonored her.
By marrying her, the rapist ensures she will be cared for during her lifetime because no other man would marry a woman who isn’t a virgin—even under such circumstances.
30 A man is not allowed to marry a woman who was once married to his father. He must respect the privacy and dignity of his father’s intimate relations with his wife.
Salvation is a costly proposition. You and your body belong to God, so use your body for the work of God, not for selfish pursuits.
7 Now to the topics you raised in your last letter. Some have said, “It is better for a man to abstain from having sex with his wife.” 2 Well, I disagree. Because of our tendency to embrace immoralities, each man should feel free to join together in sexual intimacy with his own wife, and each woman should join with her own husband. 3 Husbands and wives have reciprocal duties. Each husband has the responsibility to meet his wife’s sexual desires, and each wife should do the same for her husband. 4 In marriage neither the husband nor the wife should act as if his or her body is private property—your bodies now belong to one another, and together they are whole. 5 So do not withhold sex from one another, unless both of you have agreed to devote a certain period of time to prayer. When the agreed time is over, come together again so that Satan will not tempt you when you are short on self-control. 6 I am trying to encourage you and give you some wise counsel, so don’t take this advice as a command. 7 I wish that all of you could live as I do, unmarried. But the truth is all people are different, each gifted by God in various and dissimilar ways.
Paul’s teaching to the Corinthians about marriage stands in contrast to the message in Genesis 2, where God declares that it is not good to be alone. There He sculpts woman from the rib of the man: she was molded so that man and woman fit perfectly together. And God blesses marriage as a good and beautiful thing.
So is Paul contradicting the declaration of the Creator God when he suggests that it might be better for some people to choose an unmarried life? Absolutely not! Marriage is a sacred union, but it is possible that many will be able to serve God more fully if they do not have the limitations that come with marriage and family. Paul shares his advice humbly based on his own experience. The tension between the beauty of marriage and the freedom from marital obligations is one we should all explore. As we come to our own conclusions, we must also carry them humbly, remembering that one is not better than the other.
8 To those who are unmarried or widowed, here’s my advice: it is a good thing to stay single as I do. 9 If they do not have self-control, they should go ahead and get married. It is much better to marry than to be obsessed by sexual urges.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.