Day 285 The Bible in a Year (Orthodox canon)

Amos 4

1 Hear ye this word, ye heifers of the land of Basan that are in the mountain of Samaria, that oppress the poor, and trample on the needy, which say to their masters, Give us that we may drink. 2 The Lord swears by his holiness, that, behold, the days come upon you, when they shall take you with weapons, and fiery destroyers shall cast those with you into boiling caldrons. 3 And ye shall be brought forth naked in the presence of each other; and ye shall be cast forth on the mountain Romman, saith the Lord. 4 Ye went into Bæthel, and sinned, and ye multiplied sin at Galgala; and ye brought your meat-offerings in the morning, [and] your tithes every third day. 5 And they read the law without, and called for public professions: proclaim aloud that the children of Israel have loved these things, saith the Lord. 6 And I will give you dulness of teeth in all your cities, and want of bread in all your places: yet ye returned not to me, saith the Lord. 7 Also I withheld from you the rain three months before the harvest: and I will rain upon one city, and on another city I will not rain: one part shall be rained upon, and the part on which I shall not rain shall be dried up. 8 And [the inhabitants of] two or three cities shall be gathered to one city to drink water, and they shall not be satisfied: yet ye have not returned to me, saith the Lord. 9 I smote you with parching, and with blight: ye multiplied your gardens, your vineyards, and your fig-grounds, and the cankerworm devoured your oliveyards: yet not [even] thus did ye return to me, saith the Lord. 10 I sent pestilence among you by the way of Egypt, and slew your young men with the sword, together with thy horses that were taken captive; and in my wrath against you I set fire to your camps: yet not even thus did ye return to me, saith the Lord. 11 I overthrew you, as God overthrew Sodoma and Gomorrha, and ye became as a brand plucked out of the fire: yet not even thus did ye return to me, saith the Lord. 12 Therefore thus will I do to thee, O Israel: nay because I will do thus to thee, prepare to call on thy God, O Israel. 13 For, behold, I am he that strengthens the thunder, and creates the wind, and proclaims to men his Christ, forming the morning and the darkness, and mounting on the high places of the earth, The Lord God Almighty is his name.

Amos 5

1 Hear ye this word of the Lord, even a lamentation, which I take up against you. The house of Israel is fallen; it shall no more rise. 2 The virgin of Israel has fallen upon his land; there is none that shall raise her up. 3 Therefore thus saith the Lord God; The city out of which there went forth a thousand, [in it] there shall be left a hundred, and [in that] out of which there went forth a hundred, there shall be left ten to the house of Israel. 4 Wherefore thus saith the Lord to the house of Israel, Seek ye me, and ye shall live. 5 But seek not Bæthel, and go not in to Galgala, and cross not over to the Well of the Oath: for Galgala shall surely go into captivity, and Bæthel shall be as that which is not. 6 Seek ye the Lord, and ye shall live; lest the house of Joseph blaze as fire, and it devour him, and there shall be none to quench it for the house of Israel. 7 [It is he] that executes judgment in the height [above], and he has established justice on the earth: 8 who makes all things, and changes [them], and turns darkness into the morning, and darkens the day into night: who calls for the water of the sea, and pours it out on the face of the earth: the Lord is his name: 9 who dispenses ruin to strength, and brings distress upon the fortress. 10 They hated him that reproved in the gates, and abhorred holy speech. 11 Therefore because they have smitten the poor with their fists, and ye have received of them choice gifts; ye have built polished houses, but ye shall not dwell in them; ye have planted desirable vineyards, but ye shall not drink the wine of them. 12 For I know your many transgressions, and your sins are great, trampling on the just, taking bribes, and turning aside [the judgment of] the poor in the gates. 13 Therefore the prudent shall be silent at that time; for it is a time of evils. 14 Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live: and so the Lord God Almighty shall be with you, as ye have said, 15 We have hated evil, and loved good: and restore ye judgment in the gates; that the Lord God Almighty may have mercy on the remnant of Joseph. 16 Therefore thus saith the Lord God Almighty; In all the streets [shall be] lamentations; and in all the ways shall it be said, Woe, woe! the husbandman shall be called to mourning and lamentation, and to them that are skilled in complaining. 17 And [there shall be] lamentation in all the ways; because I will pass through the midst of thee, saith the Lord. 18 Woe to you that desire the day of the Lord! what is this day of the Lord to you? whereas it is darkness, and not light. 19 As if a man should flee from the face of a lion, and a bear should meet him; and he should spring into his house, and lean his hands upon the wall, and a serpent should bite him. 20 Is not the day of the Lord darkness, and not light? and is not this [day] gloom without brightness? 21 I hate, I reject your feasts, and I will not smell [your] meat-offerings in your general assemblies. 22 Wherefore if ye should bring me your whole-burnt-sacrifices and meat-offerings, I will not accept [them]: neither will I have respect to your grand peace-offerings. 23 Remove from me the sound of thy songs, and I will not hear the music of thine instruments. 24 But let judgment roll down as water, and righteousness as an impassable torrent. 25 Have ye offered to me victims and sacrifices, O house of Israel, forty years in the wilderness? 26 Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god Ræphan, the images of them which ye made for yourselves. 27 And I will carry you away beyond Damascus, saith the Lord, the Almighty God is his name.

Amos 6

1 Woe to them that set at nought Sion, and that trust in the mountain of Samaria: they have gathered [the harvest of] the heads of the nations, and they have gone in themselves. 2 O house of Israel, pass by all [of you], and see; and pass by thence to Ematrabba; and thence descend to Geth of the Philistines, the chief of all these kingdoms, [see] if their coasts are greater than your coasts. 3 Ye who are approaching the evil day, who are drawing near and adopting false sabbaths; 4 who sleep upon beds of ivory, and live delicately on their couches, and eat kids out of the flocks, and sucking calves out of the midst of the stalls; 5 who excel in the sound of musical instruments; they have regarded them as abiding, not as fleeting [pleasures]; 6 who drink strained wine, and anoint themselves with the best ointment: and have suffered nothing on occasion of the calamity of Joseph. 7 Therefore now shall they depart into captivity from the dominion of princes, and the neighing of horses shall be cut off from Ephraim. 8 For the Lord has sworn by himself, [saying], Because I abhor all the pride of Jacob, I do also hate his countries, and I will cut off [his] city with all who inhabit it. 9 And it shall come to pass, if there be ten men left in one house, that they shall die. 10 But a remnant shall be left behind, and their relations shall take them, and shall strenuously endeavour to carry forth their bones from the house: and one shall say to the heads of the house, Is there yet [any one] else with thee? And he shall say, No [one] else. And [the other] shall say, Be silent, that thou name not the name of the Lord. 11 For, behold, the Lord commands, and he will smite the great house with breaches, and the little house with rents. 12 Will horses run upon rocks? will they refrain from neighing at mares? for ye have turned judgment into poison, and the fruit of righteousness into bitterness: 13 ye who rejoice at vanity, who say, Have we not possessed horns by our own strength? 14 For behold, O house of Israel, I will raise up against you a nation, saith the Lord of hosts; and they shall afflict you so that ye shall not enter into Æmath, and as it were [from] the river of the wilderness.

1 Thessalonians 1

1 Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, to the assembly of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 2 We always give thanks to God for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers, 3 remembering without ceasing your work of faith and labor of love and perseverance of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, before our God and Father. 4 We know, brothers loved by God, that you are chosen, 5 and that our Good News came to you not in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit and with much assurance. You know what kind of men we showed ourselves to be among you for your sake. 6 You became imitators of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Spirit, 7 so that you became an example to all who believe in Macedonia and in Achaia. 8 For from you the word of the Lord has been declared, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith toward God has gone out, so that we need not say anything. 9 For they themselves report concerning us what kind of a reception we had from you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God, 10 and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead: Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come.