Day 318 The Bible in a Year (Orthodox canon)

Isaiah 50

1 Thus saith the Lord, Of what kind is your mother's bill of divorcement, by which I put her away? or to which debtor have I sold you? Behold, ye are sold for your sins, and for your iniquities have I put your mother away. 2 Why did I come, and there was no man? [why] did I call, and there was none to hearken? Is not my hand strong to redeem? or can I not deliver? behold, by my rebuke I will dry up the sea, and make rivers a wilderness; and their fish shall be dried up because there is no water, and shall die for thirst. 3 I will clothe the sky with darkness, and will make its covering as sackcloth. 4 The Lord [even] God gives me the tongue of instruction, to know when it is fit to speak a word: he has appointed for me early, he has given me an ear to hear: 5 and the instruction of the Lord, even the Lord, opens mine ears, and I do not disobey, nor dispute. 6 I gave my back to scourges, and my cheeks to blows; and I turned not away my face from the shame of spitting: 7 but the Lord God became my helper; therefore I was not ashamed, but I set my face as a solid rock; and I know that I shall never be ashamed, 8 for he that has justified me draws near; who is he that pleads with me? let him stand up against me at the same time: yea, who is he that pleads with me? let him draw nigh to me. 9 Behold, the Lord, the Lord, will help me; who will hurt me? behold, all ye shall wax old as a garment, and a moth shall devour you. 10 Who is among you that fears the Lord? let him hearken to the voice of his servant: ye that walk in darkness, and have no light, trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon God. 11 Behold, ye all kindle a fire, and feed a flame: walk in the light of your fire, and in the flame which ye have kindled. This has happened to you for my sake; ye shall lie down in sorrow.

Isaiah 51

1 Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, and seek the Lord: look to the solid rock, which ye have hewn, and to the hole of the pit which ye have dug. 2 Look to Abraam your father, and to Sarrha that bore you: for he was alone when I called him, and blessed him, and loved him, and multiplied him. 3 And now I will comfort thee, O Sion: and I have comforted all her desert places; and I will make her desert places as a garden, and her western places as the garden of the Lord; they shall find in her gladness and exultation, thanksgiving and the voice of praise. 4 Hear me, hear me, my people; and ye kings, hearken to me: for a law shall proceed from me, and my judgment [shall be] for a light of the nations. 5 My righteousness speedily draws nigh, and my salvation shall go forth as light, and on mine arm shall the Gentiles trust: the isles shall wait for me, and on mine arm shall they trust. 6 Lift up your eyes to the sky, and look on the earth beneath: for the sky was darkened like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and the inhabitants shall die in like manner: but my righteousness shall not fail. 7 Hear me, ye that know judgment, the people in whose heart is my law: fear not the reproach of men, and be not overcome by their contempt. 8 For as a garment will be devoured by time, and as wool will be devoured by a moth, [so shall they be consumed]; but my righteousness shall be for ever, and my salvation for all generations. 9 Awake, awake, O Jerusalem, and put on the strength of thine arm; awake as in the early time, as the ancient generation. 10 Art thou not it that dried the sea, the water, [even] the abundance of the deep; that made the depths of the sea a way of passage for the delivered and redeemed? 11 for by [the help of] the Lord they shall return, and come to Sion with joy and everlasting exultation, for praise and joy shall come upon their head: pain, and grief, and groaning, have fled away. 12 I, [even] I, am he that comforts thee: consider who thou art, that thou wast afraid of mortal man, and of the son of man, who are withered as grass. 13 And thou hast forgotten God who made thee, who made the sky and founded the earth; and thou wert continually afraid because of the wrath of him that afflicted thee: for [whereas] he counselled to take thee away, yet now where is the wrath of him that afflicted thee? 14 For in thy deliverance he shall not halt, nor tarry; 15 for I am thy God, that troubles the sea, and causes the waves thereof to roar: the Lord of hosts is my name. 16 I will put my words into thy mouth, and I will shelter thee under the shadow of mine hand, with which I fixed the sky, and founded the earth: and [the Lord] shall say to Sion, Thou art my people. 17 Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, that hast drunk at the hand of the Lord the cup of his fury: for thou hast drunk out and drained the cup of calamity, the cup of wrath: 18 and there was none to comfort thee of all the children whom thou borest; and there was none to take hold of thine hand, not even of all the children whom thou hast reared. 19 Wherefore these things are against thee; who shall sympathise with thee in thy grief? downfall, and destruction, famine, and sword: who shall comfort thee? 20 Thy sons are the perplexed ones, that sleep at the top of every street as a half-boiled beet; they that are full of the anger of the Lord, caused to faint by the Lord God. 21 Therefore hear, thou afflicted one, and drunken, [but] not with wine; 22 thus saith the Lord God that judges his people, Behold, I have taken out of thine hand the cup of calamity, the cup of my wrath; and thou shalt not drink it any more. 23 And I will give it into the hands of them that injured thee, and them that afflicted thee; who said to thy soul, Bow down, that we may pass over: and thou didst level thy body with the ground to them passing by without.

Isaiah 52

1 Awake, awake, Sion; put on thy strength, O Sion; and do thou put on thy glory, Jerusalem the holy city: there shall no more pass through thee the uncircumcised and unclean. 2 Shake off the dust and arise; sit down, Jerusalem: put off the band of thy neck, captive daughter of Sion. 3 For thus saith the Lord, Ye have been sold for nought; and ye shall not be ransomed with silver. 4 Thus saith the Lord, My people went down before to Egypt to sojourn there; and were carried away forcibly to the Assyrians. 5 And now why are ye here? Thus saith the Lord, Because my people was taken for nothing, wonder ye and howl. Thus saith the Lord, On account of you my name is continually blasphemed among the Gentiles. 6 Therefore shall my people know my name in that day, for I am he that speaks: I am present, 7 as a season of beauty upon the mountains, as the feet of one preaching glad tidings of peace, as one preaching good news: for I will publish thy salvation, saying, O Sion, thy God shall reign. 8 For the voice of them that guard thee is exalted, and with the voice together they shall rejoice: for eyes shall look to eyes, when the Lord shall have mercy upon Sion. 9 Let the waste places of Jerusalem break forth [in] joy together, because the Lord has had mercy upon her, and has delivered Jerusalem. 10 And the Lord shall reveal his holy arm in the sight of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation that [comes] from our God. 11 Depart ye, depart, go out from thence, and touch not the unclean thing; go ye out from the midst of her; separate yourselves, ye that bear the vessels of the Lord. 12 For ye shall not go forth with tumult, neither go by flight: for the Lord shall go first in advance of you; and the God of Israel shall be he that brings up your rear. 13 Behold, my servant shall understand, and be exalted, and glorified exceedingly. 14 As many shall be amazed at thee, so shall thy face be without glory from men, and thy glory [shall not be honoured] by the sons of men. 15 Thus shall many nations wonder at him; and kings shall keep their mouths shut: for they to whom no report was brought concerning him, shall see; and they who have not heard, shall consider.

Hebrews 2

1 Therefore we ought to pay greater attention to the things that were heard, lest perhaps we drift away. 2 For if the word spoken through angels proved steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just penalty, 3 how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation—which at the first having been spoken through the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard, 4 God also testifying with them, both by signs and wonders, by various works of power, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to his own will? 5 For he didn’t subject the world to come, of which we speak, to angels. 6 But one has somewhere testified, saying, “What is man, that you think of him? Or the son of man, that you care for him? 7 You made him a little lower than the angels. You crowned him with glory and honor. 8 You have put all things in subjection under his feet.” For in that he subjected all things to him, he left nothing that is not subject to him. But now we don’t yet see all things subjected to him. 9 But we see him who has been made a little lower than the angels, Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that by the grace of God he should taste of death for everyone. 10 For it became him, for whom are all things and through whom are all things, in bringing many children to glory, to make the author of their salvation perfect through sufferings. 11 For both he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one, for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brothers, 12 saying, “I will declare your name to my brothers. Among the congregation I will sing your praise.” 13 Again, “I will put my trust in him.” Again, “Behold, here I am with the children whom God has given me.” 14 Since then the children have shared in flesh and blood, he also himself in the same way partook of the same, that through death he might bring to nothing him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and might deliver all of them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. 16 For most certainly, he doesn’t give help to angels, but he gives help to the offspring of Abraham. 17 Therefore he was obligated in all things to be made like his brothers, that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make atonement for the sins of the people. 18 For in that he himself has suffered being tempted, he is able to help those who are tempted.