Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
The Righteous Will Never Be Moved
112 [a] (A)Praise the Lord!
(B)Blessed is the man who fears the Lord,
who (C)greatly delights in his commandments!
2 His (D)offspring will be mighty in the land;
(E)the generation of the upright will be blessed.
3 (F)Wealth and riches are in his house,
and his (G)righteousness endures forever.
4 Light dawns in the darkness (H)for the upright;
he is gracious, merciful, and (I)righteous.
5 It is well with the man who (J)deals generously and lends;
who conducts his affairs with justice.
6 For the righteous will (K)never be moved;
(L)he will be remembered forever.
7 He is not (M)afraid of bad news;
his (N)heart is firm, (O)trusting in the Lord.
8 His heart is steady;[b] he will not be afraid,
until he looks in triumph on his adversaries.
9 He has (P)distributed freely; he has given to the poor;
his righteousness endures forever;
his (Q)horn is exalted in honor.
10 The wicked man sees it and is angry;
he (R)gnashes his teeth and (S)melts away;
(T)the desire of the wicked will perish!
Laws Concerning Sexual Immorality
13 “If any man takes a wife and (A)goes in to her and then hates her 14 and accuses her of misconduct and brings a bad name upon her, saying, ‘I took this woman, and when I came near her, I did not find in her evidence of virginity,’ 15 then the father of the young woman and her mother shall take and bring out the evidence of her virginity to the elders of the city in the gate. 16 And the father of the young woman shall say to the elders, ‘I gave my daughter to this man to marry, and he hates her; 17 and behold, he has accused her of misconduct, saying, “I did not find in your daughter evidence of virginity.” And yet this is the evidence of my daughter's virginity.’ And they shall spread the cloak before the elders of the city. 18 Then the elders of that city shall take the man and whip[a] him, 19 and they shall fine him a hundred shekels[b] of silver and give them to the father of the young woman, because he has brought a bad name upon a virgin[c] of Israel. And she shall be his wife. (B)He may not divorce her all his days. 20 But if the thing is true, that evidence of virginity was not found in the young woman, 21 then they shall bring out the young woman to the door of her father's house, and (C)the men of her city shall stone her to death with stones, because she has (D)done an outrageous thing in Israel by whoring in her father's house. (E)So you shall purge the evil from your midst.
22 (F)“If a man is found lying with the wife of another man, both of them shall die, the man who lay with the woman, and the woman. (G)So you shall purge the evil from Israel.
23 “If there is a (H)betrothed virgin, and a man meets her in the city and lies with her, 24 then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city, and you shall stone them to death with stones, the young woman because she did not cry for help though she was in the city, and the man because he violated his neighbor's wife. (I)So you shall purge the evil from your midst.
25 “But if in the open country a man meets a young woman who is betrothed, and the man seizes her and lies with her, then only the man who lay with her shall die. 26 But you shall do nothing to the young woman; she has committed no offense punishable by death. For this case is like that of a man attacking and murdering his neighbor, 27 because he met her in the open country, and though the betrothed young woman cried for help there was no one to rescue her.
28 (J)“If a man meets a virgin who is not betrothed, and seizes her and lies with her, and they are found, 29 then the man who lay with her shall give to the father of the young woman fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife, because he has violated her. He may not divorce her all his days.
30 [d] (K)“A man shall not take his father's wife, so that he does not (L)uncover his father's nakedness.[e]
Principles for Marriage
7 Now concerning the matters about which you wrote: (A)“It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.” 2 But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband. 3 (B)The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband. 4 For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. 5 (C)Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer; but then come together again, (D)so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.
6 Now as a concession, (E)not a command, I say this.[a] 7 (F)I wish that all were (G)as I myself am. But (H)each has his own gift from God, (I)one of one kind and one of another.
8 To the unmarried and the widows I say that (J)it is good for them to remain single, (K)as I am. 9 But if they cannot exercise self-control, (L)they should marry. For it is better to marry than to burn with passion.
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.