Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Written About Me in the Scroll

Psalm 40

²⁵ “Now if a woman has a discharge of her blood for many days not during her niddah or if she has a discharge beyond the time of her niddah all the days of the discharge of her uncleanness should be as in the days of her niddah. She is unclean. ^{[a] 26} Every bed where she lies all the days of her discharge will be like her bed during her niddah, and everything she sits on will become unclean like the uncleanness of her niddah. ²⁷ Whoever touches these things will become unclean and is to wash his clothes and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the evening.

²⁸ “But if she is cleansed of her discharge, then she is to count off seven days for herself, and after that she will be clean. ²⁹ On the eighth day she is to take two turtledoves or two young pigeons, and bring them to the kohen, at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting. ³⁰ The kohen is to offer the one for a sin offering, and the other for a burnt offering. So the kohen will make atonement for her before Adonai for the uncleanness of her discharge.

³¹ “So you are to keep Bnei-Yisrael separate from their uncleanness, so they will not die in their uncleanness by defiling My Tabernacle that is in their midst.”

22 Adonai spoke to Moses, saying: ² “Tell Aaron and his sons to separate themselves from the holy things of Bnei-Yisrael, which they consecrate to Me, so that they would not profane My holy Name. I am Adonai. ³ Tell them, if anyone of all your offspring throughout your generations approaches the holy things, which Bnei-Yisrael consecrate to Adonai, while in a state of uncleanness, that soul will be cut off from before Me. I am Adonai.

⁴ “None of the offspring of Aaron who has tza’arat or has a discharge should eat of the holy things until he is clean. Whoever touches anything that is unclean by the dead or a man whose seed discharges from him ⁵ or who touches any creeping thing that may make him unclean or a person who is unclean—whatever his uncleanness— ⁶ the person who touches any such thing will be unclean until the evening, and is not to eat of the holy things, unless he has bathed his body in water. ⁷ When the sun sets, he will become clean, and afterward he may eat of the holy things, because it is his food. ⁸ A carcass or what is torn by beasts he is not to eat, becoming unclean by it. I am Adonai.

⁹ “Therefore kohanim shall keep My charge, so that they do not become guilty of sin and die should they profane it. I am Adonai who sanctifies them.

Preserving Sanctity in God’s Living Temple

¹⁴ Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers.^[a] For what partnership is there between righteousness and lawlessness? Or what fellowship does light have with darkness? ¹⁵ What harmony does Messiah have with Belial^[b]? Or what part does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? ¹⁶ What agreement does God’s Temple have with idols?^[c] For we are the temple of the living God—just as God said,

7 Therefore, since we have these promises, loved ones, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of body and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

Godly Sorrow and Joy

² Make room for us in your hearts. We wronged no one, ruined no one, took advantage of no one.