Day 281 The Bible in a Year (Orthodox canon)

Hosea 6

1 Let us go, and return to the Lord our God; for he has torn, and will heal us; he will smite, and bind us up. 2 After two days he will heal us: in the third day we shall arise, and live before him, and shall know [him]: 3 let us follow on to know the Lord: we shall find him ready as the morning, and he will come to us as the early and latter rain to the earth. 4 What shall I do unto thee, Ephraim? What shall I do to thee, Juda? whereas your mercy is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew that goes away. 5 Therefore have I mown down your prophets; I have slain them with the word of my mouth: and my judgment shall go forth as the light. 6 For I will [have] mercy rather than sacrifice, and the knowledge of God rather than whole-burnt-offerings. 7 But they are as a man transgressing a covenant: 8 there the city Galaad despised me, working vanity, troubling water. 9 And thy strength [is that] of a robber: the priests have hid the way, they have murdered [the people of] Sicima; for they have wrought iniquity in the house of Israel. 10 I have seen horrible [things] there, [even] the fornication of Ephraim: Israel and Juda are defiled; 11 begin to gather grapes for thyself, when I turn the captivity of my people.

Hosea 7

1 When I have healed Israel, then shall the iniquity of Ephraim be revealed, and the wickedness of Samaria; for they have wrought falsehood: and a thief shall come in to him, [even] a robber spoiling in his way; 2 that they may concert together as [men] singing in their heart: I remember all their wickedness: now have their own counsels compassed them about; they came before my face. 3 They gladdened kings with their wickedness, and princes with their lies. 4 They are all adulterers, as an oven glowing with flame for hot-baking, on account of the kneading of the dough, until it is leavened. 5 [In] the days of our kings, the princes began to be inflamed with wine: he stretched out his hand with pestilent fellows. 6 Wherefore their hearts are inflamed as an oven, while they rage all the night: Ephraim is satisfied with sleep; the morning is come; he is burnt up as a flame of fire. 7 They are all heated like an oven, and have devoured their judges: all their kings are fallen; there was not among them one that called on me. 8 Ephraim is mixed among his people; Ephraim became a cake not turned. 9 Strangers devoured his strength, and he knew [it] not; and grey hairs came upon him, and he knew [it] not. 10 And the pride of Israel shall be brought down before his face: yet they have not returned to the Lord their God, neither have they diligently sought him for all this. 11 And Ephraim was as a silly dove, not having a heart: he called to Egypt, and they went to the Assyrians. 12 Whenever they shall go, I will cast my net upon them; I will bring them down as the birds of the sky, I will chasten them with the rumour of their [coming] affliction. 13 Woe to them! for they have started aside from me: they are cowards; for they have sinned against me: yet I redeemed them, but they spoke falsehoods against me. 14 And their hearts did not cry to me, but they howled on their beds: they pined for oil and wine. 15 They were instructed by me, and I strengthened their arms; and they devised evils against me. 16 They turned aside to that which is not, they became as a bent bow: their princes shall fall by the sword, by reason of the unbridled state of their tongue: this is their setting at nought in the land of Egypt.

Hosea 8

1 [He shall come] into their midst as the land, as an eagle against the house of the Lord, because they have transgressed my covenant, and have sinned against my law. 2 They shall soon cry out to me, [saying], O God, we know thee. 3 For Israel has turned away from good things; they have pursued an enemy. 4 They have made kings for themselves, but not by me: they have ruled, but they did not make it known to me: [of] their silver and their gold they have made images to themselves, that they might be destroyed. 5 Cast off thy calf, O Samaria; mine anger is kindled against them: how long will they be unable to purge themselves in Israel? 6 Whereas the workman made it, and it is not God; wherefore thy calf, Samaria, was a deceiver: 7 for they sowed blighted [seed], and their destruction shall await them, a sheaf of corn that avails not to make meal; and even if it should produce it, strangers shall devour it. 8 Israel is swallowed up: now is he become among the nations as a worthless vessel. 9 For they have gone up to the Assyrians: Ephraim has been strengthened against himself; they loved gifts. 10 Therefore shall they be delivered to the nations: now I will receive them, and they shall cease a little to anoint a king and princes. 11 Because Ephraim has multiplied altars, [his] beloved altars are become sins to him. 12 I will write down a multitude [of commands] for him; but his statutes are accounted strange things, [even] the beloved altars. 13 For if they should offer a sacrifice, and eat flesh, the Lord will not accept them: now will he remember their iniquities, and will take vengeance on their sins: they have returned to Egypt, and they shall eat unclean things among the Assyrians. 14 And Israel has forgotten him that made him, and they have built fanes, and Juda has multiplied walled cities: but I will send fire on his cities, and it shall devour their foundations.

Colossians 2

1 For I desire to have you know how greatly I struggle for you and for those at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh; 2 that their hearts may be comforted, they being knit together in love, and gaining all riches of the full assurance of understanding, that they may know the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ, 3 in whom all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden. 4 Now I say this that no one may delude you with persuasiveness of speech. 5 For though I am absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in the spirit, rejoicing and seeing your order, and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ. 6 As therefore you received Christ Jesus the Lord, walk in him, 7 rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, even as you were taught, abounding in it in thanksgiving. 8 Be careful that you don’t let anyone rob you through his philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the elemental spirits of the world, and not after Christ. 9 For in him all the fullness of the Deity dwells bodily, 10 and in him you are made full, who is the head of all principality and power. 11 In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, in the putting off of the body of the sins of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ, 12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. 13 You were dead through your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh. He made you alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 wiping out the handwriting in ordinances which was against us. He has taken it out of the way, nailing it to the cross. 15 Having stripped the principalities and the powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it. 16 Let no one therefore judge you in eating or drinking, or with respect to a feast day or a new moon or a Sabbath day, 17 which are a shadow of the things to come; but the body is Christ’s. 18 Let no one rob you of your prize by self-abasement and worshiping of the angels, dwelling in the things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, 19 and not holding firmly to the Head, from whom all the body, being supplied and knit together through the joints and ligaments, grows with God’s growth. 20 If you died with Christ from the elemental spirits of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to ordinances, 21 “Don’t handle, nor taste, nor touch” 22 (all of which perish with use), according to the precepts and doctrines of men? 23 These things indeed appear like wisdom in self-imposed worship, humility, and severity to the body, but aren’t of any value against the indulgence of the flesh.