Day 289 The Bible in a Year (Orthodox canon)

Micah 7

1 Alas for me! for I am become as one gathering straw in harvest, and as [one gathering] grape-gleanings in the vintage, when there is no cluster for me to eat the first-ripe fruit: alas my soul! 2 For the godly is perished from the earth; and there is none among men that orders [his way] aright: they all quarrel even to blood: they grievously afflict every one his neighbour: 3 they prepare their hands for mischief, the prince asks [a reward], and the judge speaks flattering words; it is the desire of their soul: 4 therefore I will take away their goods as a devouring moth, and as one who acts by a [rigid] rule in a day of visitation. Woe, woe, thy times of vengeance are come; now shall be their lamentations. 5 Trust not in friends, and confide not in guides: beware of thy wife, so as not to commit anything to her. 6 For the son dishonours his father, the daughter will rise up against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law: those in his house [shall be] all a man's enemies. 7 But I will look to the Lord; I will wait upon God my Saviour: my God will hearken to me. 8 Rejoice not against me, mine enemy; for I have fallen [yet] shall arise; for though I should sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light to me. 9 I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against him, until he make good my cause: he also shall maintain my right, and shall bring me out to the light, [and] I shall behold his righteousness. 10 And she that is mine enemy shall see it, and shall clothe herself with shame, who says, Where [is] the Lord thy God? mine eyes shall look upon her: now shall she be for trampling as mire in the ways. 11 [It is] the day of making of brick; that day shall be thine utter destruction, and that day shall utterly abolish thine ordinances. 12 And thy cities shall be levelled, and parted among the Assyrians; and thy strong cities shall be parted from Tyre to the river, and from sea to sea, and from mountain to mountain. 13 And the land shall be utterly desolate together with them that inhabit it, because of the fruit of their doings. 14 Tend thy people with thy rod, the sheep of thine inheritance, those that inhabit by themselves the thicket in the midst of Carmel: they shall feed in the land of Basan, and in the land of Galaad, as in the days of old. 15 And according to the days of thy departure out of Egypt shall ye see marvellous [things]. 16 The nations shall see and be ashamed; and at all their might they shall lay their hands upon their mouth, their ears shall be deafened. 17 They shall lick the dust as serpents crawling on the earth, they shall be confounded in their holes; they shall be amazed at the Lord our God, and will be afraid of thee. 18 Who is a God like thee, cancelling iniquities, and passing over the sins of the remnant of his inheritance? and he has not kept his anger for a testimony, for he delights in mercy. 19 He will return and have mercy upon us; he will sink our iniquities, and they shall be cast into the depths of the sea, [even] all our sins. 20 He shall give blessings truly to Jacob, and mercy to Abraam, as thou swarest to our fathers, according to the former days.

Joel 1

1 The word of the Lord which came to Joel the son of Bathuel. 2 Hear these [words], ye elders, and hearken all ye that inhabit the land. Have such things happened in your days, or in the days of your fathers? 3 Tell your children concerning them, and [let] your children [tell] their children, and their children another generation. 4 The leavings of the caterpillar has the locust eaten, and the leavings of the locust has the palmerworm eaten, and the leavings of the palmerworm has the cankerworm eaten. 5 Awake, ye drunkards, from your wine, and weep: mourn, all ye that drink wine to drunkenness: for joy and gladness are removed from your mouth. 6 For a strong and innumerable nation is come up against my land, their teeth are lion's teeth, and their back teeth those of a [lion's] whelp. 7 He has ruined my vine, and utterly broken my fig-trees: he has utterly searched [my vine], and cast it down; he has peeled its branches. 8 Lament to me more than a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth. 9 The meat-offering and drink-offering are removed from the house of the Lord: mourn, ye priests that serve at the altar of the Lord. 10 For the plains languish: let the land mourn, for the corn languishes; the wine is dried up, the oil becomes scarce; 11 the husbandmen are consumed: mourn your property on account of the wheat and barley; for the harvest has perished from off the field. 12 The vine is dried up, and the fig-trees are become few; the pomegranate, and palm-tree, and apple, and all the trees of the field are dried up: for the sons of men have abolished joy. 13 Gird yourselves [with sackcloth], and lament, ye priests: mourn, ye that serve at the altar: go in, sleep in sackcloths, ye that minister to God: for the meat-offering and drink-offering are withheld from the house of your God. 14 Sanctify a fast, proclaim a [solemn] service, gather the elders [and] all the inhabitants of the land into the house of your God, and cry earnestly to the Lord, 15 Alas, alas, alas for the day! for the day of the Lord is nigh, and it will come as trouble upon trouble. 16 [Your] meat has been destroyed before your eyes, joy and gladness from out of the house of your God. 17 The heifers have started at their mangers, the treasures are abolished, the wine-presses are broken down; for the corn is withered. 18 What shall we store up for ourselves? the herds of cattle have mourned, because they had no pasture; and the flocks of sheep have been utterly destroyed. 19 To thee, O Lord, will I cry: for fire has devoured the fair places of the wilderness, and a flame has burnt up all the trees of the field. 20 And the cattle of the field have looked up to thee: for the fountains of waters have been dried up, and fire has devoured the fair places of the wilderness.

Joel 2

1 Sound the trumpet in Sion, make a proclamation in my holy mountain, and let all the inhabitants of the land be confounded: for the day of the Lord is near; 2 for a day of darkness and gloominess is near, a day of cloud and mist: a numerous and strong people shall be spread upon the mountains as the morning; there has not been from the beginning one like it, and after it there shall not be again even to the years of many generations. 3 Before them is a consuming fire, and behind them is a flame kindled: the land before them is as a paradise of delight, and behind them a desolate plain: and there shall none of them escape. 4 Their appearance is as the appearance of horses; and as horsemen, so shall they pursue. 5 As the sound of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they leap, and as the sound of a flame of fire devouring stubble, and as a numerous and strong people setting themselves in array for battle. 6 Before them shall the people be crushed: every face [shall be] as the blackness of a caldron. 7 As warriors shall they run, and as men of war shall they mount on the walls; and each shall move in his [right] path, and they shall not turn aside from their tracks: 8 and not one shall stand aloof from his brother: they shall go on weighed down with their arms, and they fall upon their weapons, yet shall they in no wise be destroyed. 9 They shall seize upon the city, and run upon the walls, and go up upon the houses, and enter in through the windows as thieves. 10 Before them the earth shall be confounded, and the sky shall be shaken: the sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their light. 11 And the Lord shall utter his voice before his host: for his camp is very great: for the execution of his words is mighty: for the day of the Lord is great, very glorious, and who shall be able to [resist] it? 12 Now therefore, saith the Lord your God, turn to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with lamentation: 13 and rend your hearts, and not your garments, and turn to the Lord your God: for he is merciful and compassionate, long-suffering, and plenteous in mercy, and repents of evils. 14 Who knows if he will return, and repent, and leave a blessing behind him, even a meat-offering and a drink-offering to the Lord your God? 15 Sound the trumpet in Sion, sanctify a fast, proclaim a [solemn] service: 16 gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the infants at the breast: let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and the bride out of her closet. 17 Between the porch and the altar let the priests that minister to the Lord weep, and say, Spare thy people, O Lord, and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them, lest they should say among the heathen, Where is their God? 18 But the Lord was jealous of his land, and spared his people. 19 And the Lord answered and said to his people, Behold, I [will] send you corn, and wine, and oil, and ye shall be satisfied with them: and I will no longer make you a reproach among the Gentiles. 20 And I will chase away from you the northern [adversary], and will drive him away into a dry land, and I will sink his face in the former sea, and his back parts in the latter sea, and his ill savour shall come up, and his stink shall come up, because he has wrought great things. 21 Be of good courage, O land; rejoice and be glad: for the Lord has done great things. 22 Be of good courage, ye beasts of the plain, for the plains of the wilderness have budded, for the trees have borne their fruit, the fig-tree and the vine have yielded their strength. 23 Rejoice then and be glad, ye children of Sion, in the Lord your God: for he has given you food fully, and he will rain on you the early and the latter rain, as before. 24 And the floors shall be filled with corn, and the presses shall overflow with wine and oil. 25 And I will recompense you for the years which the locust, and the caterpillar, and the palmerworm, and the cankerworm have eaten, [even] my great army, which I sent against you. 26 And ye shall eat abundantly, and be satisfied, and shall praise the name of the Lord your God [for the things] which he has wrought wonderfully with you: and my people shall not be ashamed for ever. 27 And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and [that] I am the Lord your God, and [that] there is none else beside me; and my people shall no more be ashamed for ever.

Joel 3

1 And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. 2 And on my servants and on [my] handmaids in those days will I pour out of my Spirit. 3 And I will shew wonders in heaven, and upon the earth, blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke. 4 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and glorious day of the Lord come. 5 And it shall come to pass [that] whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved: for in mount Sion and in Jerusalem shall the saved one be as the Lord has said, and they that have glad tidings preached to them, whom the Lord has called.