Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
112 1 He praiseth the felicity of them that fear God, 10 and condemneth the cursed state of the contemners of God.
Praise ye the Lord.
1 Blessed is the man that [a]feareth the Lord, and delighteth greatly in his commandments.
2 His seed shall be mighty upon earth: the generation of the righteous shall be blessed.
3 [b]Riches and treasures shall be in his house, and his righteousness endureth forever.
4 Unto the [c]righteous ariseth light in darkness: he is merciful and full of compassion and righteous.
5 A good man is merciful, and [d]lendeth, and will measure his affairs by judgment.
6 Surely he shall never be moved: but the righteous shall be had in everlasting remembrance.
7 He will not be afraid of evil tidings: for his heart is fixed, and believeth in the Lord.
8 His heart is established: therefore he will not fear, until he see his desire upon his enemies.
9 He hath [e]distributed and given to the poor: his righteousness remaineth forever: his [f]horn shall be exalted with glory.
10 The wicked shall see it, and be angry: he shall gnash with his teeth, and [g]consume away: the desire of the wicked shall perish.
13 ¶ If a man take a wife, and when he hath lain with her, hate her,
14 And lay [a]slanderous things unto her charge, and bring up an evil name upon her, and say, I took this wife, and when I came to her, I found her not a maid,
15 Then shall the father of the maid and her mother take and bring the signs of the maid’s virginity unto the Elders of the city to the gate.
16 And the maid’s father shall say unto the Elders, I gave my daughter unto this man to wife and he hateth her:
17 And lo, he layeth slanderous things unto her charge, saying, I found not thy daughter a maid: lo, these are the tokens of my daughter’s virginity: and they shall spread the [b]vesture before the Elders of the city.
18 Then the Elders of the city shall take that man and chastise him,
19 And shall condemn him in an hundred shekels of silver, and give them unto the father [c]of the maid, because he hath brought up an evil name upon a maid of Israel: and she shall be his wife, and he may not put her away all his life.
20 But if this thing be true, that the maid be not found a virgin,
21 Then shall they bring forth the maid to the door of her father’s house, and the men of her city shall stone her with stones to death: for she hath wrought folly in Israel, by playing the whore in her father’s house: so thou shalt put evil away from among you.
22 ¶ (A)If a man be found lying with a woman married to a man, then they shall die even both twain: to wit, the man that lay with the wife, and the wife: so thou shalt put away evil from Israel.
23 ¶ If a maid be betrothed unto a husband, and a man find her in the town and lie with her,
24 Then shall ye bring them both out unto the gates of the same city, and shall stone them with stones to death: the maid because she cried not, being in the city, and the man, because he hath [d]humbled his neighbor’s wife: so thou shalt put away evil from among you.
25 ¶ But if a man find a betrothed maid in the field and force her, and lie with her, then the man that lay with her, shall die alone:
26 And unto the maid thou shalt do nothing, because there is in the maid no [e]cause of death: for as when a man riseth against his neighbor and woundeth him to death, so [f]is this matter.
27 For he found her in the fields: the betrothed maid cried, and there was no man to succor her.
28 ¶ (B)If a man find a maid that is not betrothed, and take her, and lie with her, and they be found,
29 Then the man that lay with her, shall give unto the maid’s father fifty shekels of silver: and she shall be his wife, because he hath humbled her: he can not put her away all his life.
30 ¶ No man shall [g]take his father’s wife, nor shall uncover his father’s skirt.
7 Entreating here of marriage, 4 which is a remedy against fornication, 10 and may not be broken, 18, 20 he willeth every man to live contented with his lot. 25 He showeth what the end of virginity should be, 35 and who ought to marry.
1 Now [a]concerning the things [b]whereof ye wrote unto me, It were [c]good for a man not to touch a woman.
2 Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his wife, and let every woman have her own husband.
3 (A)[d]Let the husband give unto the wife [e]due benevolence, and likewise also the wife unto the husband.
4 [f]The wife hath not the power of her own body, but the husband: and likewise also the husband hath not the power of his own body, but the wife.
5 Defraud not one another, [g]except it be with consent for a time, that ye may [h]give yourselves to fasting and prayer, and again come together, that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency.
6 [i]But I speak this by permission, not by commandment.
7 For I [j]would that all men were even as I myself am: but every man hath his proper gift of God, one after this manner, and another after that.
8 [k]Therefore I say unto the [l]unmarried, and unto the widows, It is good for them if they abide even as I do.
9 But if they cannot abstain, let them marry: for it is better to marry than to [m]burn.
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