Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

88 O Jehovah, God of my salvation, I have wept before you day and night. ² Now hear my prayers; oh, listen to my cry, ³ for my life is full of troubles, and death draws near. ⁴ They say my life is ebbing out—a hopeless case. ⁵ They have left me here to die, like those slain on battlefields from whom your mercies are removed.

⁶ You have thrust me down to the darkest depths. ⁷ Your wrath lies heavy on me; wave after wave engulfs me. ⁸ You have made my friends to loathe me, and they have gone away. I am in a trap with no way out. ⁹ My eyes grow dim with weeping. Each day I beg your help; O Lord, I reach my pleading hands to you for mercy.

¹⁰ Soon it will be too late! Of what use are your miracles when I am in the grave? How can I praise you then? ¹¹ Can those in the grave declare your loving-kindness? Can they proclaim your faithfulness? ¹² Can the darkness speak of your miracles? Can anyone in the Land of Forgetfulness talk about your help?

¹³ O Lord, I plead for my life and will keep on pleading day by day. ¹⁴ O Jehovah, why have you thrown my life away? Why are you turning your face from me and looking the other way?

¹⁵ From my youth I have been sickly and ready to die. I stand helpless before your terrors. ¹⁶ Your fierce wrath has overwhelmed me. Your terrors have cut me off. ¹⁷ They flow around me all day long. ¹⁸ Lover, friend, acquaintance—all are gone. There is only darkness everywhere.

21 The Lord said to Moses: “Tell the priests never to defile themselves by touching a dead person, ^2-3 unless it is a near relative—a mother, father, son, daughter, brother, or unmarried^[a] sister for whom he has special responsibility since she has no husband. ⁴ For the priest is a leader among his people, and he may not ceremonially defile himself as an ordinary person can.

⁵ “The priests shall not clip bald spots in their hair or beards, nor cut their flesh. ⁶ They shall be holy unto their God and shall not dishonor and profane his name; otherwise they will be unfit to make food offerings by fire to the Lord their God. ⁷ A priest shall not marry a prostitute, nor a woman of another tribe, and he shall not marry a divorced woman, for he is a holy man of God. ⁸ The priest is set apart to offer the sacrifices of your God; he is holy, for I, the Lord who sanctifies you, am holy. ⁹ The daughter of any priest who becomes a prostitute, thus violating her father’s holiness as well as her own, shall be burned alive.

¹⁰ “The High Priest—anointed with the special anointing oil and wearing the special garments—must not let his hair hang loose in mourning, nor tear his clothing, ¹¹ nor be in the presence of any dead person—not even his father or mother.^{[b] 12} He shall not leave the sanctuary when on duty,^[c] nor treat my Tabernacle like an ordinary house, for the consecration of the anointing oil of his God is upon him; I am Jehovah. ¹³ He must marry a virgin. ^14-15 He may not marry a widow, nor a woman who is divorced, nor a prostitute. She must be a virgin from his own tribe, for he must not be the father of children of mixed blood—half priestly and half ordinary.”^[d]

¹⁶ I am thankful to God that he has given Titus the same real concern for you that I have. ¹⁷ He is glad to follow my suggestion that he visit you again—but I think he would have come anyway, for he is very eager to see you! ¹⁸ I am sending another well-known brother with him, who is highly praised as a preacher of the Good News in all the churches. ¹⁹ In fact, this man was elected by the churches to travel with me to take the gift to Jerusalem. This will glorify the Lord and show our eagerness to help each other. ²⁰ By traveling together we will guard against any suspicion, for we are anxious that no one should find fault with the way we are handling this large gift. ²¹ God knows we are honest, but I want everyone else to know it too. That is why we have made this arrangement.

²² And I am sending you still another brother, whom we know from experience to be an earnest Christian. He is especially interested as he looks forward to this trip because I have told him all about your eagerness to help.

²³ If anyone asks who Titus is, say that he is my partner, my helper in helping you, and you can also say that the other two brothers represent the assemblies here and are splendid examples of those who belong to the Lord.

²⁴ Please show your love for me to these men and do for them all that I have publicly boasted you would.