Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

(A song and a psalm by the clan of Korah for the music leader. To the tune “Mahalath Leannoth.”^[a] A special psalm by Heman the Ezrahite.)

A Prayer When You Can't Find the Way

Instructions for Priests

21 The Lord gave Moses these instructions for Aaron's sons, the priests:

Touching a dead body will make you unclean. So don't go near a dead relative, ² except your mother, father, son, daughter, brother, ³ or an unmarried sister, who has no husband to take care of her. ⁴ Don't make yourself unclean by attending the funeral of someone related to you by marriage.^{[a] 5 (A)} Don't shave any part of your head or trim your beard or cut yourself to show that you are mourning. ⁶ I am the Lord your God, and I have chosen you alone to offer sacrifices of food to me on the altar. That's why you must keep yourselves holy. ⁷ Don't marry a divorced woman or a woman who has served as a temple prostitute. You are holy, ⁸ because I am holy. And so, you must be treated with proper respect, since you offer food sacrifices to me, the God of holiness.

⁹ If any of you priests has a daughter who disgraces you by serving as a temple prostitute, she must be burned to death.

¹⁰ If you are the high priest, you must not mess up your hair or tear your clothes in order to mourn for the dead. ¹¹ Don't make yourself unclean by going near a dead body, not even that of your own father or mother. ¹² If you leave the sacred place to attend a funeral, both you and the sacred place become unclean, because you are the high priest.

¹³ If you are the high priest, you must marry only a virgin ¹⁴ from your own tribe. Don't marry a divorced woman or any other woman who has already had sex, including a temple prostitute. ¹⁵ In this way, your descendants will be qualified to serve me. Remember—I am the Lord, and I have chosen you.

Titus and His Friends

¹⁶ I am grateful that God made Titus care as much about you as we do. ¹⁷ When we begged Titus to visit you, he said he would. He wanted to because he cared so much for you. ¹⁸ With Titus we are also sending one of the Lord's followers who is well known in every church for spreading the good news. ¹⁹ The churches chose this follower to travel with us while we carry this gift that will bring praise to the Lord and show how much we hope to help. ²⁰ We don't want anyone to find fault with the way we handle your generous gift. ^21 (A) But we want to do what pleases the Lord and what people think is right.

²² We are also sending someone else with Titus and the other follower. We approve of this man. In fact, he has already shown us many times that he wants to help. And now he wants to help even more than ever, because he trusts you so much. ²³ Titus is my partner, who works with me to serve you. The other two followers are sent by the churches, and they bring honor to Christ. ²⁴ Treat them in such a way that the churches will see your love and will know why we bragged about you.