Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

The Happiness of a Good Person

Laws concerning Sexual Purity

¹³ “Suppose a man marries a young woman and later he decides he doesn't want her. ¹⁴ So he makes up false charges against her, accusing her of not being a virgin when they got married.

¹⁵ “If this happens, the young woman's parents are to take the blood-stained wedding sheet that proves she was a virgin, and they are to show it in court to the town leaders. ¹⁶ Her father will say to them, ‘I gave my daughter to this man in marriage, and now he doesn't want her. ¹⁷ He has made false charges against her, saying that she was not a virgin when he married her. But here is the proof that my daughter was a virgin; look at the bloodstains on the wedding sheet!’ ¹⁸ Then the town leaders are to take the husband and beat him. ¹⁹ They are also to fine him a hundred pieces of silver and give the money to the young woman's father, because the man has brought disgrace on an Israelite woman. Moreover, she will continue to be his wife, and he can never divorce her as long as he lives.

²⁰ “But if the charge is true and there is no proof that she was a virgin, ²¹ then they are to take her out to the entrance of her father's house, where the men of her city are to stone her to death. She has done a shameful thing among our people by having intercourse before she was married, while she was still living in her father's house. In this way you will get rid of this evil.

²² “If a man is caught having intercourse with another man's wife, both of them are to be put to death. In this way you will get rid of this evil.

²³ “Suppose a man is caught in a town having intercourse with a young woman who is engaged to someone else. ²⁴ You are to take them outside the town and stone them to death. She is to die because she did not cry out for help, although she was in a town, where she could have been heard. And the man is to die because he had intercourse with someone who was engaged. In this way you will get rid of this evil.

²⁵ “Suppose a man out in the countryside rapes a young woman who is engaged to someone else. Then only the man is to be put to death; ²⁶ nothing is to be done to the woman, because she has not committed a sin worthy of death. This case is the same as when one man attacks another man and murders him. ²⁷ The man raped the engaged woman in the countryside, and although she cried for help, there was no one to help her.

^28 (A)“Suppose a man is caught raping a young woman who is not engaged. ²⁹ He is to pay her father the bride price of fifty pieces of silver, and she is to become his wife, because he forced her to have intercourse with him. He can never divorce her as long as he lives.

^30 (B)“No man is to disgrace his father by having intercourse with any of his father's wives.

Questions about Marriage

7 Now, to deal with the matters you wrote about.

A man does well not to marry.^{[a] 2} But because there is so much immorality, every man should have his own wife, and every woman should have her own husband. ³ A man should fulfill his duty as a husband, and a woman should fulfill her duty as a wife, and each should satisfy the other's needs. ⁴ A wife is not the master of her own body, but her husband is; in the same way a husband is not the master of his own body, but his wife is. ⁵ Do not deny yourselves to each other, unless you first agree to do so for a while in order to spend your time in prayer; but then resume normal marital relations. In this way you will be kept from giving in to Satan's temptation because of your lack of self-control.

⁶ I tell you this not as an order, but simply as a permission. ⁷ Actually I would prefer that all of you were as I am; but each one has a special gift from God, one person this gift, another one that gift.

⁸ Now, to the unmarried and to the widows I say that it would be better for you to continue to live alone as I do. ⁹ But if you cannot restrain your desires, go ahead and marry—it is better to marry than to burn with passion.