Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

¹³ “If a man marries a woman, has sexual relations with her and then, having come to dislike her, ¹⁴ brings false charges against her and defames her character by saying, ‘I married this woman, but when I had intercourse with her I did not find evidence that she was a virgin’; ¹⁵ then the girl’s father and mother are to take the evidence of the girl’s virginity to the leaders of the town at the gate. ¹⁶ The girl’s father will say to the leaders, ‘I let my daughter marry this man, but he hates her, ¹⁷ so he has brought false charges that he didn’t find evidence of her virginity; yet here is the evidence of my daughter’s virginity’ — ^{(18 )} and they will lay the cloth before the town leaders. ^18 (19) The leaders of that town are to take the man, punish him, ¹⁹ and fine him two-and-a-half pounds of silver shekels, which they will give to the girl’s father, because he has publicly defamed a virgin of Isra’el. She will remain his wife, and he is forbidden from divorcing her as long as he lives.

²⁰ “But if the charge is substantiated that evidence for the girl’s virginity could not be found; ²¹ then they are to lead the girl to the door of her father’s house, and the men of her town will stone her to death, because she has committed in Isra’el the disgraceful act of being a prostitute while still in her father’s house. In this way you will put an end to such wickedness among you.

²² “If a man is found sleeping with a woman who has a husband, both of them must die — the man who went to bed with the woman and the woman too. In this way you will expel such wickedness from Isra’el.

²³ “If a girl who is a virgin is engaged to a man, and another man comes upon her in the town and has sexual relations with her; ²⁴ you are to bring them both out to the gate of the city and stone them to death — the girl because she didn’t cry out for help, there in the city, and the man because he has humiliated his neighbor’s wife. In this way you will put an end to such wickedness among you.

²⁵ “But if the man comes upon the engaged girl out in the countryside, and the man grabs her and has sexual relations with her, then only the man who had intercourse with her is to die. ²⁶ You will do nothing to the girl, because she has done nothing deserving of death. The situation is like the case of the man who attacks his neighbor and kills him. ²⁷ For he found her in the countryside, and the engaged girl cried out, but there was no one to save her.

²⁸ “If a man comes upon a girl who is a virgin but who is not engaged, and he grabs her and has sexual relations with her, and they are caught in the act, ²⁹ then the man who had intercourse with her must give to the girl’s father one-and-a-quarter pounds of silver shekels, and she will become his wife, because he humiliated her; he may not divorce her as long as he lives.

7 Now to deal with the questions you wrote about: “Is it good for a man to keep away from women?” ² Well, because of the danger of sexual immorality, let each man have his own wife and each woman her own husband. ³ The husband should give his wife what she is entitled to in the marriage relationship, and the wife should do the same for her husband. ⁴ The wife is not in charge of her own body, but her husband is; likewise, the husband is not in charge of his own body, but his wife is. ⁵ Do not deprive each other, except for a limited time, by mutual agreement, and then only so as to have extra time for prayer; but afterwards, come together again. Otherwise, because of your lack of self-control, you may succumb to the Adversary’s temptation. ⁶ I am giving you this as a suggestion, not as a command. ⁷ Actually, I wish everyone were like me; but each has his own gift from God, one this, another that.

⁸ Now to the single people and the widows I say that it is fine if they remain unmarried like me; ⁹ but if they can’t exercise self-control, they should get married; because it is better to get married than to keep burning with sexual desire.