Day 290 The Bible in a Year (Orthodox canon)

Joel 4

1 For, behold, in those days and at that time, when I shall have turned the captivity of Juda and Jerusalem, 2 I will also gather all the Gentiles, and bring them down to the valley of Josaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and my heritage Israel, who have been dispersed among the Gentiles; and [these Gentiles] have divided my land, 3 and cast lots over my people, and have given [their] boys to harlots, and sold [their] girls for wine, and have drunk. 4 And what have ye to do with me, O Tyre, and Sidon, and all Galilee of the Gentiles? do ye render me a recompense? or do ye bear malice against me? quickly and speedily will I return your recompense on your own heads: 5 because ye have taken my silver and my gold, and ye have brought my choice ornaments into your temples; 6 and ye have sold the children of Juda and the children of Jerusalem to the children of the Greeks, that ye might expel them from their coasts. 7 Therefore, behold, I [will] raise them up out of the place whither ye have sold them, and I will return your recompense on your own heads. 8 And I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hands of the children of Juda, and they shall sell them into captivity to a far distant nation: for the Lord has spoken [it]. 9 Proclaim these things among the Gentiles; declare war, arouse the warriors, draw near and go up, all ye men of war. 10 Beat your ploughshares into swords, and your sickles into spears: let the weak say, I am strong. 11 Gather yourselves together, and go in, all ye nations round about, and gather yourselves there: let the timid become a warrior. 12 Let them be aroused, let all the nations go up to the valley of Josaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the Gentiles round about. 13 Bring forth the sickles, for the vintage is come: go in, tread [the grapes], for the press is full: cause the vats to overflow; for their wickedness is multiplied. 14 Noises have resounded in the valley of judgment: for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of judgment. 15 The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their light. 16 And the Lord shall cry out of Sion, and shall utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heaven and the earth shall be shaken, but the Lord shall spare his people, and shall strengthen the children of Israel. 17 And ye shall know that I am the Lord your God, who dwell in Sion my holy mountain: and Jerusalem shall be holy, and strangers shall not pass through her any more. 18 And it shall come to pass in that day [that] the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the fountains of Juda shall flow with water, and a fountain shall go forth of the house of the Lord, and water the valley of flags. 19 Egypt shall be a desolation, and Idumea shall be a desolate plain, because of the wrongs of the children of Juda, because they have shed righteous blood in their land. 20 But Judea shall be inhabited for ever, and Jerusalem to all generations. 21 And I will make inquisition for their blood, and will by no means leave it unavenged: and the Lord shall dwell in Sion.

Obadiah 1

1 The vision of Obdias. Thus saith the Lord God to Idumea; I have heard a report from the Lord, and he has sent forth a message to the nations. 2 Arise ye, and let us rise up against her to war. 3 Behold, I have made thee small among the Gentiles: thou art greatly dishonoured. The pride of thine heart has elated thee, dwelling [as thou dost] in the holes of the rocks, [as one that] exalts his habitation, saying in his heart, Who will bring me down to the ground? 4 If thou shouldest mount up as the eagle, and if thou shouldest make thy nest among the stars, thence will I bring thee down, saith the Lord. 5 If thieves came in to thee, or robbers by night, where wouldest thou have been cast away? would they not have stolen [just] enough for themselves? and if grape-gatherers went in to thee, would they not leave a gleaning? 6 How has Esau been searched out, and [how] have his hidden things been detected? 7 They sent thee to thy coasts: all the men of thy covenant have withstood thee; thine allies have prevailed against thee, they have set snares under thee: they have no understanding. 8 In that day, saith the Lord, I will destroy the wise men out of Idumea, and understanding out of the mount of Esau. 9 And thy warriors from Thæman shall be dismayed, to the end that man may be cut off from the mount of Esau. 10 Because of the slaughter and the sin [committed against] thy brother Jacob, shame shall cover thee, and thou shalt be cut off for ever. 11 From the day that thou stoodest in opposition [to him], in the days when foreigners were taking captive his forces, and strangers entered into his gates, and cast lots on Jerusalem, thou also wast as one of them. 12 And thou shouldest not have looked on the day of thy brother in the day of strangers; nor shouldest thou have rejoiced against the children of Juda in the day of their destruction; neither shouldest thou have boasted in the day of [their] affliction. 13 Neither shouldest thou have gone into the gates of the people in the day of their troubles; nor yet shouldest thou have looked upon their gathering in the day of their destruction, nor shouldest thou have attacked their host in the day of their perishing. 14 Neither shouldest thou have stood at the opening of their passages, to destroy utterly those of them that were escaping; neither shouldest thou have shut up his fugitives in the day of affliction. 15 For the day of the Lord is near upon all the Gentiles: as thou hast done, so shall it be [done] to thee: thy recompense shall be returned on thine [own] head. 16 For as thou hast drunk upon my holy mountain, [so] shall all the nations drink wine; they shall drink, and go down, and be as if they were not. 17 But on mount Sion there shall be deliverance, and there shall be a sanctuary; and the house of Jacob shall take for an inheritance those that took them for an inheritance. 18 And the house of Jacob shall be fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau [shall be] for stubble; and [Israel] shall flame forth against them, and shall devour them, and there shall not be a corn-field [left] to the house of Esau; because the Lord has spoken. 19 And they [that dwell] in the south shall inherit the mount of Esau, and they in the plain the Philistines: and they shall inherit the mount of Ephraim, and the plain of Samaria, and Benjamin, and the land of Galaad. 20 And this [shall be] the domain of the captivity of the children of Israel, the land of the Chananites as far as Sarepta; and the captives of Jerusalem [shall inherit] as far as Ephratha; they shall inherit the cities of the south. 21 And they that escape shall come up from mount Sion, to take vengeance on the mount of Esau; and the kingdom shall be the Lord's.

Jonah 1

1 Now the word of the Lord came to Jonas the son of Amathi, saying, 2 Rise, and go to Nineve, the great city, and preach in it; for the cry of its wickedness is come up to me. 3 But Jonas rose up to flee to Tharsis from the presence of the Lord. And he went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tharsis: and he paid his fare, and went up into it, to sail with them to Tharsis from the presence of the Lord. 4 And the Lord raised up a wind on the sea; and there was a great storm on the sea, and the ship was in danger of being broken. 5 And the sailors were alarmed, and cried every one to his god, and cast out the wares that were in the ship into the sea, that it might be lightened of them. But Jonas was gone down into the hold of the ship, and was asleep, and snored. 6 And the shipmaster came to him, and said to him, Why snorest thou? arise, and call upon thy God, that God may save us, and we perish not. 7 And each man said to his neighbour, Come, let us cast lots, and find out for whose sake this mischief is upon us. So they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonas. 8 And they said to him, Tell us what is thine occupation, and whence comest thou, and of what country and what people art thou? 9 And he said to them, I am a servant of the Lord; and I worship the Lord God of heaven, who made the sea, and the dry [land]. 10 Then the men feared exceedingly, and said to him, What is this [that] thou hast done? for the men knew that he was fleeing from the face of the Lord, because he had told them. 11 And they said to him, What shall we do to thee, that the sea may be calm to us? for the sea rose, and lifted its wave exceedingly. 12 And Jonas said to them, Take me up, and cast me into the sea, and the sea shall be calm to you: for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you. 13 And the men tried hard to return to the land, and were not able: for the sea rose and grew more and more tempestuous against them. 14 And they cried to the Lord, and said, Forbid it, Lord: let us not perish for the sake of this man's life, and bring not righteous blood upon us: for thou, Lord, hast done as thou wouldest. 15 So they took Jonas, and cast him out into the sea: and the sea ceased from its raging. 16 And the men feared the Lord very greatly, and offered a sacrifice to the Lord, and vowed vows.

1 Thessalonians 4

1 Finally then, brothers, we beg and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, that you abound more and more. 2 For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. 3 For this is the will of God: your sanctification, that you abstain from sexual immorality, 4 that each one of you know how to control his own body in sanctification and honor, 5 not in the passion of lust, even as the Gentiles who don’t know God, 6 that no one should take advantage of and wrong a brother or sister in this matter; because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as also we forewarned you and testified. 7 For God called us not for uncleanness, but in sanctification. 8 Therefore he who rejects this doesn’t reject man, but God, who has also given his Holy Spirit to you. 9 But concerning brotherly love, you have no need that one write to you. For you yourselves are taught by God to love one another, 10 for indeed you do it toward all the brothers who are in all Macedonia. But we exhort you, brothers, that you abound more and more; 11 and that you make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, even as we instructed you, 12 that you may walk properly toward those who are outside, and may have need of nothing. 13 But we don’t want you to be ignorant, brothers, concerning those who have fallen asleep, so that you don’t grieve like the rest, who have no hope. 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. 15 For this we tell you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will in no way precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with God’s trumpet. The dead in Christ will rise first, 17 then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. So we will be with the Lord forever. 18 Therefore comfort one another with these words.