Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

God makes his people strong^[a]

Rules for marriage

¹³ Perhaps a man will marry a woman, and he has sex with her. Later he decides he no longer wants her to be his wife. ¹⁴ He may then tell lies against her to say that she is bad. He may say, ‘I married this woman, and I had sex with her. Then I discovered that she had already had sex before I married her.’

¹⁵ If that happens, the woman's parents must bring the cloth that she slept on with her husband. They must take it to the leaders of the town to show them. ¹⁶ The woman's father must say to the leaders, ‘I gave my daughter to this man to be his wife. But now he does not like her. ¹⁷ He accuses her that she is bad. He says, “I discovered that your daughter had sex before I married her.” But look at her cloth. This shows that she had never had sex before.’ Then her parents must hold the cloth in front of the leaders of the town. ¹⁸ The leaders must then take hold of the man. They must punish him. ¹⁹ They must make the man pay 100 pieces of silver to the young woman's father. The man has told lies. He has accused a pure Israelite girl to say that she is bad. After that, she will continue to be his wife. He may never send her away as long as he lives.

²⁰ But perhaps the husband has spoken the truth. Perhaps his new wife cannot show that she had not had sex before. ²¹ If so, the leaders must take her to the entrance of her father's house. The men of the town must throw stones at her there, until she dies. She has done a very bad thing that brings shame on Israel. She has had sex like a prostitute while she lived in her father's house. You must remove evil acts like this from among you.

²² You may discover a man who is having sex with another man's wife. If so, you must punish both the man and the woman with death. In this way, you will remove such evil acts from Israel.

²³ Perhaps a man may meet a young woman in a town. She has already promised to marry another man, but the man has sex with her. ²⁴ If so, you must take both of them to the gate of that town. You must throw stones at both of them there, until they die. The young woman is guilty because she did not shout aloud for help. They were in the town, so someone would have heard her. The man is guilty because he had sex with the future wife of another man. In this way, you will remove evil acts from among you.

²⁵ But perhaps a man may meet a young woman in a field in the country. She has already promised to marry another man. But the man is stronger than her and he has sex with her. If that happens, only the man must die. ²⁶ Do not punish the young woman. She does not deserve to die. The man's act is like a man who attacks and murders another person. ²⁷ The man met the young woman in a field. When she shouted for help, nobody heard her because it happened in the country. There was no one there to rescue her.

²⁸ Perhaps a man may meet a girl who has not had sex with anyone before. She has not yet promised to marry anyone. The man may be too strong and he has sex with her. ²⁹ If that happens, the man must pay 50 pieces of silver to the girl's father. He must also marry the girl because he has had sex with her. He may never send her away as long as he lives.

³⁰ A man must not marry a woman who was his father's wife. That would bring shame on his father.

Questions about marriage

7 You wrote to ask me about certain things. You say, ‘It is a good thing when a man does not marry.’ ² That may be true, but then people may have sex in wrong ways. So every man should have his own wife and every woman should have her own husband. ³ Then they may have sex with each other in the right way. A husband should agree to have sex with his wife. And the wife should do the same thing for her husband. ⁴ The wife does not rule over her own body to decide when to have sex. She belongs to her husband. In the same way, the husband does not rule over his own body. He belongs to his wife.

⁵ Do not refuse to have sex with each other, unless both of you agree to stop for a short time. Then you can use more time to pray. But you should come together again soon, as husband and wife. If not, Satan may try to make you do something wrong. You may want too strongly to have sex with someone else. ⁶ I am saying these things to help you. I am not telling you what you must do. ⁷ It would be good if all of you could live in the way that I do. But each person has his own gift from God. God helps one person to live in a certain way. God helps another person with a different gift.

⁸ I will say this to those of you who have not married yet, and to those who are widows. It is better for you to remain alone. That is how I myself live. ⁹ But if you want to have sex too strongly, then you should marry. It is better to do that than to want to have sex all the time.