Day 234 The Bible in a Year (Orthodox canon)

Job 29

1 And Job continued and said in his parable, 2 Oh that I were as in months past, wherein God preserved me! 3 As when his lamp shone over my head; when by his light I walked through darkness. 4 [As] when I steadfastly pursued my ways, when God took care of my house. 5 When I was very fruitful, and my children were about me; 6 when my ways were moistened with butter, and the mountains flowed for me with milk. 7 When I went forth early in the city, and the seat was placed for me in the streets. 8 The young men saw me, and hid themselves: and all the old men stood up. 9 And the great men ceased speaking, and laid their finger on their mouth. 10 And they that heard [me] blessed me, and their tongue clave to their throat. 11 For the ear heard, and blessed me; and the eye saw me, and turned aside. 12 For I saved the poor out of the hand of the oppressor, and helped the fatherless who had no helper. 13 Let the blessing of the perishing one come upon me; yea, the mouth of the widow has blessed me. 14 Also I put on righteousness, and clothed myself with judgment like a mantle. 15 I was the eye of the blind, and the foot of the lame. 16 I was the father of the helpless; and I searched out the cause which I knew not. 17 And I broke the jaw-teeth of the unrighteous; I plucked the spoil out of the midst of their teeth. 18 And I said, My age shall continue as the stem of a palm-tree; I shall live a long while. 19 [My] root was spread out by the water, and the dew would lodge on my crop. 20 My glory was fresh in me, and my bow prospered in his hand. 21 [Men] heard me, and gave heed, and they were silent at my counsel. 22 At my word they spoke not again, and they were very glad whenever I spoke to them. 23 As the thirsty earth expecting the rain, so they [waited for] my speech. 24 Were I to laugh on them, they would not believe [it]; and the light of my face has not failed. 25 I chose out their way, and sat chief, and dwelt as a king in the midst of warriors, as one comforting mourners.

Job 30

1 But now the youngest have laughed me to scorn, now they reprove me in [their] turn, whose fathers I set at nought; whom I did not deem worthy [to be with] my shepherd dogs. 2 Yea, why had I the strength of their hands? for them the full term [of life] was lost. 3 [One is] childless in want and famine, [such as] they that fled but lately the distress and misery of drought. 4 Who compass the salt places on the sounding [shore], who had salt [herbs] for their food, and were dishonourable and of no repute, in want of every good thing; who also ate roots of trees by reason of great hunger. 5 Thieves have risen up against me, 6 whose houses were the caves of the rocks, who lived under the wild shrubs. 7 They will cry out among the rustling [bushes]. 8 [They are] sons of fools and vile men, [whose] name and glory [are] quenched from off the earth. 9 But now I am their music, and they have me for a by-word. 10 And they stood aloof and abhorred me, and spared not to spit in my face. 11 For he has opened his quiver and afflicted me: they also have cast off the restraint of my presence. 12 They have risen up against [me] on the right hand of [their] offspring; they have stretched out their foot, and directed against me the ways of their destruction. 13 My paths are ruined; for they have stripped off my raiment: he has shot at me with his weapons. 14 And he has pleaded against me as he will: I am overwhelmed with pains. 15 My pains return upon [me]; my hope is gone like the wind, and my safety as a cloud. 16 Even now my life shall be poured forth upon me; and days of anguish seize me. 17 And by night my bones are confounded; and my sinews are relaxed. 18 With great force [my disease] has taken hold of my garment: it has compassed me as the collar of my coat. 19 And thou hast counted me as clay; my portion is in dust and ashes. 20 And I have cried to thee, but thou hearest me not: but they stood still, and observed me. 21 They attacked me also without mercy: thou hast scourged me with a strong hand. 22 And thou hast put me to grief, and hast cast me away from safety. 23 For I know that death will destroy me: for the earth is the house [appointed] for every mortal. 24 Oh then that I might lay hands upon myself, or at least ask another, and he should do this for me. 25 Yet I wept over every helpless man; I groaned when I saw a man in distress. 26 But I, when I waited for good things, behold, days of evils came the more upon me. 27 My belly boiled, and would not cease: the days of poverty prevented me. 28 I went mourning without restraint: and I have stood and cried out in the assembly. 29 I am become a brother of monsters, and a companion of ostriches. 30 And my skin has been greatly blackened, and my bones are burned with heat. 31 My harp also has been turned into mourning, and my song into my weeping.

Job 31

1 I made a covenant with mine eyes, and I will not think upon a virgin. 2 Now what portion has God given from above? and is there an inheritance [given] of the Mighty One from the highest? 3 Alas! destruction to the unrighteous, and rejection to them that do iniquity. 4 Will he not see my way, and number all my steps? 5 But if I had gone with scorners, and if too my foot has hasted to deceit: 6 (for I am weighed in a just balance, and the Lord knows my innocence:) 7 if my foot has turned aside out of the way, or if mine heart has followed mine eye, and if too I have touched gifts with my hands; 8 then let me sow, and let others eat; and let me be uprooted on the earth. 9 If my heart has gone forth after another man's wife, and if I laid wait at her doors; 10 then let my wife also please another, and let my children be brought low. 11 For the rage of anger is not to be controlled, [in the case] of defiling [another] man's wife. 12 For it is a fire burning on every side, and whomsoever it attacks, it utterly destroys. 13 And if too I despised the judgment of my servant or [my] handmaid, when they pleaded with me; 14 what then shall I do if the Lord should try me? and if also he should at all visit me, can I make an answer? 15 Were not they too formed as I also was formed in the womb? yea, we were formed in the same womb. 16 But the helpless missed not whatever need they had, and I did not cause the eye of the widow to fail. 17 And if too I ate my morsel alone, and did not impart [of it] to the orphan; 18 (for I nourished [them] as a father from my youth, and guided [them] from my mother's womb.) 19 And if too I overlooked the naked as he was perishing, and did not clothe him; 20 and if the poor did not bless me, and their shoulders were [not] warmed with the fleece of my lambs; 21 if I lifted my hand against an orphan, trusting that my strength was far superior [to his]: 22 let then my shoulder start from the blade-bone, and my arm be crushed off from the elbow. 23 For the fear of the Lord constrained me, and I cannot bear up by reason of his burden. 24 If I made gold my treasure, and if too I trusted the precious stone; 25 and if too I rejoiced when my wealth was abundant, and if too I laid my hand on innumerable [treasures]: 26 (do we not see the shining sun eclipsed, and the moon waning? for they have not [power to continue]:) 27 and if my heart was secretly deceived, and if I have laid my hand upon my mouth and kissed it: 28 let this also then be reckoned to me as the greatest iniquity: for I [should] have lied against the Lord Most High. 29 And if too I was glad at the fall of mine enemies, and mine heart said, Aha! 30 let then mine ear hear my curse, and let me be a by-word among my people in my affliction. 31 And if too my handmaids have often said, Oh that we might be satisfied with his flesh; (whereas I was very kind: 32 for the stranger did not lodge without, and my door was opened to every one that came:) 33 or if too having sinned unintentionally, I hid my sin; 34 (for I did not stand in awe of a great multitude, so as not to declare boldly before them:) and if too I permitted a poor man to go out of my door with an empty bosom: 35 (Oh that I had a hearer,) and if I had not feared the hand of the Lord; and [as to] the written charge which I had against any one, 36 I would place [it] as a chaplet on my shoulders, and read it. 37 And if I did not read it and return it, having taken nothing from the debtor: 38 If at any time the land groaned against me, and if its furrows mourned together; 39 and if I ate its strength alone without price, and if too I grieved the heart of the owner of the soil, by taking [aught] from [him]: 40 then let the nettle come up to me instead of wheat, and a bramble instead of barley. And Job ceased speaking.

1 Corinthians 13

1 If I speak with the languages of men and of angels, but don’t have love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but don’t have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, but don’t have love, it profits me nothing. 4 Love is patient and is kind. Love doesn’t envy. Love doesn’t brag, is not proud, 5 doesn’t behave itself inappropriately, doesn’t seek its own way, is not provoked, takes no account of evil; 6 doesn’t rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. 8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will be done away with. Where there are various languages, they will cease. Where there is knowledge, it will be done away with. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part; 10 but when that which is complete has come, then that which is partial will be done away with. 11 When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I felt as a child, I thought as a child. Now that I have become a man, I have put away childish things. 12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, even as I was also fully known. 13 But now faith, hope, and love remain—these three. The greatest of these is love.