Day 228 The Bible in a Year (Orthodox canon)

Job 12

1 And Job answered and said, 2 So then ye [alone] are men, and wisdom shall die with you? 3 [But] I also have a heart as well as you. 4 For a righteous and blameless man has become a subject for mockery. 5 For it had been ordained that he should fall under others at the appointed time, and that his houses should be spoiled by transgressors: let not however any one trust that, being evil, he shall be [held] guiltless, 6 even as many as provoke the Lord, as if there were indeed to be no inquisition [made] of them. 7 But ask now the beasts, if they may speak to thee; and the birds of the air, if they may declare to thee. 8 Tell the earth, if it may speak to thee: and the fishes of the sea shall explain to thee. 9 Who then has not known in all these things, that the hand of the Lord has made them? 10 Whereas the life of all living things is in his hand, and the breath of every man. 11 For the ear tries words, and the palate tastes meats. 12 In length of time is wisdom, and in long life knowledge. 13 With him are wisdom and power, with him counsel and understanding. 14 If he should cast down, who will build up? if he should shut up against men, who shall open? 15 If he should withhold the water, he will dry the earth: and if he should let it loose, he overthrows and destroys it. 16 With him are strength and power: he has knowledge and understanding. 17 He leads counsellors away captive, and maddens the judges of the earth. 18 He seats kings upon thrones, and girds their loins with a girdle. 19 He sends away priests into captivity, and overthrows the mighty ones of the earth. 20 He changes the lips of the trusty, and he knows the understanding of the elders. 21 He pours dishonour upon princes, and heals the lowly. 22 Revealing deep things out of darkness: and he has brought into light the shadow of death. 23 Causing the nations to wander, and destroying them: overthrowing the nations, and leading them [away]. 24 Perplexing the minds of the princes of the earth: and he causes them to wander in a way they have not known, [saying], 25 Let them grope [in] darkness, and [let there be] no light, and let them wander as a drunken man.

Job 13

1 Behold, mine eye has seen these things, and mine ear has heard [them]. 2 And I know all that ye too know; and I have not less understanding than you. 3 Nevertheless I will speak to the Lord, and I will reason before him, if he will. 4 But ye are all bad physicians, and healers of diseases. 5 But would that ye were silent, and it would be wisdom to you in the end. 6 But hear ye the reasoning of my mouth, and attend to the judgment of my lips. 7 Do ye not speak before the Lord, and utter deceit before him? 8 Or will ye draw back? nay, do ye yourselves be judges. 9 For [it were] well if he would thoroughly search you: for though doing all things [in your power] ye should attach yourselves to him, 10 he will not reprove you at all the less: but if moreover ye should secretly respect persons, 11 shall not his whirlpool sweep you round, and terror from him fall upon you? 12 And your glorying shall prove in the end to you like ashes, and your body [like a body] of clay. 13 Be silent, that I may speak, and cease from [mine] anger, 14 while I may take my flesh in my teeth, and put my life in my hand. 15 Though the Mighty One should lay hand upon me, forasmuch as he has begun, verily I will speak, and plead before him. 16 And this shall turn to me for salvation; for fraud shall have no entrance before him. 17 Hear, hear ye my words, for I will declare in your hearing. 18 Behold, I am near my judgment: I know that I shall appear evidently just. 19 For who is he that shall plead with me, that I should now be silent, and expire? 20 But grant me two things: then I will not hide myself from thy face. 21 Withhold [thine] hand from me: and let not thy fear terrify me. 22 Then shalt thou call, and I will hearken to thee: or thou shalt speak, and I will give thee an answer. 23 How many are my sins and my transgressions? teach me what they are. 24 Wherefore hidest thou thyself from me, and deemest me thine enemy? 25 Wilt thou be startled [at me], as [at] a leaf shaken by the wind? or wilt thou set thyself against me as against grass borne upon the breeze? 26 For thou hast written evil things against me, and thou hast compassed me with the sins of my youth. 27 And thou hast placed my foot in the stocks; and thou hast watched all my works, and hast penetrated to my heels. 28 [I am as] that which waxes old like a bottle, or like a moth-eaten garment.

Job 14

1 For a mortal born of a woman [is] short-lived, and full of wrath. 2 Or he falls like a flower that has bloomed; and he departs like a shadow, and cannot continue. 3 Hast thou not taken account even of him, and caused him to enter into judgment before thee? 4 For who shall be pure from uncleanness? not even one; 5 if even his life should be [but] one day upon the earth: and his months are numbered by him: thou hast appointed [him] for a time, and he shall by no means exceed [it]. 6 Depart from him, that he may be quiet, and take pleasure in his life, [though] as a hireling. 7 For there is hope for a tree, even if it should be cut down, [that] it shall blossom again, and its branch shall not fail. 8 For though its root should grow old in the earth, and its stem die in the rock; 9 it will blossom from the scent of water, and will produce a crop, as one newly planted. 10 But a man that has died is utterly gone; and when a mortal has fallen, he is no more. 11 For the sea wastes in [length of] time, and a river fails and is dried up. 12 And man that has lain down [in death] shall certainly not rise again till the heaven be dissolved, and they shall not awake from their sleep. 13 For oh that thou hadst kept me in the grave, and hadst hidden me until thy wrath should cease, and thou shouldest set me a time in which thou wouldest remember me! 14 For if a man should die, shall he live [again], having accomplished the days of his life? I will wait till I exist again? 15 Then shalt thou call, and I will hearken to thee: but do not thou reject the work of thine hands. 16 But thou hast numbered my devices: and not one of my sins shall escape thee? 17 And thou hast sealed up my transgressions in a bag, and marked if I have been guilty of any transgression unawares. 18 And verily a mountain falling will utterly be destroyed, and a rock shall be worn out of its place. 19 The waters wear the stones, and waters falling headlong [overflow] a heap of the earth: and thou destroyest the hope of man. 20 Thou drivest him to an end, and he is gone: thou settest thy face against him, and sendest him away; 21 and though his children be multiplied, he knows [it] not; and if they be few, he is not aware. 22 But his flesh is in pain, and his soul mourns.

1 Corinthians 9

1 Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Haven’t I seen Jesus Christ, our Lord? Aren’t you my work in the Lord? 2 If to others I am not an apostle, yet at least I am to you; for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord. 3 My defense to those who examine me is this: 4 Have we no right to eat and to drink? 5 Have we no right to take along a wife who is a believer, even as the rest of the apostles, and the brothers of the Lord, and Cephas? 6 Or have only Barnabas and I no right to not work? 7 What soldier ever serves at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard, and doesn’t eat of its fruit? Or who feeds a flock, and doesn’t drink from the flock’s milk? 8 Do I speak these things according to the ways of men? Or doesn’t the law also say the same thing? 9 For it is written in the law of Moses, “You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain.” Is it for the oxen that God cares, 10 or does he say it assuredly for our sake? Yes, it was written for our sake, because he who plows ought to plow in hope, and he who threshes in hope should partake of his hope. 11 If we sowed to you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we reap your fleshly things? 12 If others partake of this right over you, don’t we yet more? Nevertheless we didn’t use this right, but we bear all things, that we may cause no hindrance to the Good News of Christ. 13 Don’t you know that those who serve around sacred things eat from the things of the temple, and those who wait on the altar have their portion with the altar? 14 Even so the Lord ordained that those who proclaim the Good News should live from the Good News. 15 But I have used none of these things, and I don’t write these things that it may be done so in my case; for I would rather die, than that anyone should make my boasting void. 16 For if I preach the Good News, I have nothing to boast about, for necessity is laid on me; but woe is to me if I don’t preach the Good News. 17 For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward. But if not of my own will, I have a stewardship entrusted to me. 18 What then is my reward? That when I preach the Good News, I may present the Good News of Christ without charge, so as not to abuse my authority in the Good News. 19 For though I was free from all, I brought myself under bondage to all, that I might gain the more. 20 To the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain Jews; to those who are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain those who are under the law; 21 to those who are without law, as without law (not being without law toward God, but under law toward Christ), that I might win those who are without law. 22 To the weak I became as weak, that I might gain the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I may by all means save some. 23 Now I do this for the sake of the Good News, that I may be a joint partaker of it. 24 Don’t you know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run like that, so that you may win. 25 Every man who strives in the games exercises self-control in all things. Now they do it to receive a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible. 26 I therefore run like that, not aimlessly. I fight like that, not beating the air, 27 but I beat my body and bring it into submission, lest by any means, after I have preached to others, I myself should be disqualified.