Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Prosperity of him that fears Jehovah.

¹³ If any man take a wife, and go in unto her, and hate her, ¹⁴ and lay shameful things to her charge, and bring up an evil name upon her, and say, I took this woman, and when I came nigh to her, I found not in her the tokens of virginity; ¹⁵ then shall the father of the damsel, and her mother, take and bring forth the tokens of the damsel’s virginity unto the elders of the city in the gate; ¹⁶ and the damsel’s father shall say unto the elders, I gave my daughter unto this man to wife, and he hateth her; ¹⁷ and, lo, he hath laid shameful things to her charge, saying, I found not in thy daughter the tokens of virginity; and yet these are the tokens of my daughter’s virginity. And they shall spread the garment before the elders of the city. ¹⁸ And the elders of that city shall take the man and chastise him; ¹⁹ and they shall fine him a hundred shekels of silver, and give them unto the father of the damsel, because he hath brought up an evil name upon a virgin of Israel: and she shall be his wife; he may not put her away all his days. ²⁰ But if this thing be true, that the tokens of virginity were not found in the damsel; ²¹ then they shall bring out the damsel to the door of her father’s house, and the men of her city shall stone her to death with stones, because she hath wrought folly in Israel, to play the harlot in her father’s house: so shalt thou put away the evil from the midst of thee.

²² If a man be found lying with a woman married to a husband, then they shall both of them die, the man that lay with the woman, and the woman: so shalt thou put away the evil from Israel.

²³ If there be a damsel that is a virgin betrothed unto a husband, and a man find her in the city, and lie with her; ²⁴ then ye shall bring them both out unto the gate of that city, and ye shall stone them to death with stones; the damsel, because she cried not, being in the city; and the man, because he hath humbled his neighbor’s wife: so thou shalt put away the evil from the midst of thee.

²⁵ But if the man find the damsel that is betrothed in the field, and the man force her, and lie with her; then the man only that lay with her shall die: ²⁶ but unto the damsel thou shalt do nothing; there is in the damsel no sin worthy of death: for as when a man riseth against his neighbor, and slayeth him, even so is this matter; ²⁷ for he found her in the field, the betrothed damsel cried, and there was none to save her.

²⁸ If a man find a damsel that is a virgin, that is not betrothed, and lay hold on her, and lie with her, and they be found; ²⁹ then the man that lay with her shall give unto the damsel’s father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife, because he hath humbled her; he may not put her away all his days.

³⁰ A man shall not take his father’s wife, and shall not uncover his father’s skirt.

7 Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote: It is good for a man not to touch a woman. ² But, because of fornications, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband. ³ Let the husband render unto the wife her due: and likewise also the wife unto the husband. ⁴ The wife hath not power over her own body, but the husband: and likewise also the husband hath not power over his own body, but the wife. ⁵ Defraud ye not one the other, except it be by consent for a season, that ye may give yourselves unto prayer, and may be together again, that Satan tempt you not because of your incontinency. ⁶ But this I say by way of concession, not of commandment. ^7 [a]Yet I would that all men were even as I myself. Howbeit each man hath his own gift from God, one after this manner, and another after that.

⁸ But I say to the unmarried and to widows, It is good for them if they abide even as I. ⁹ But if they have not continency, let them marry: for it is better to marry than to burn.