Day 326 The Bible in a Year (Orthodox canon)

Jeremiah 7

2 Hear ye the word of the Lord, all Judea. 3 Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Correct your ways and your devices, and I will cause you to dwell in this place. 4 Trust not in yourselves with lying words, for they shall not profit you at all, saying, It is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord. 5 For if ye thoroughly correct your ways and your practices, and do indeed execute judgment between a man and his neighbour; 6 and oppress not the stranger, and the orphan, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, and go not after strange gods to your hurt: 7 then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land which I gave to your fathers of old and for ever. 8 But whereas ye have trusted in lying words, whereby ye shall not be profited; 9 and ye murder, and commit adultery, and steal, and swear falsely, and burn incense to Baal, and are gone after strange gods whom ye know not, 10 so that it is evil with you; yet have ye come, and stood before me in the house, whereon my name is called, and ye have said, We have refrained from doing all these abominations. 11 Is my house, whereon my name is called, a den of robbers in your eyes? And, behold, I have seen [it], saith the Lord. 12 For go ye to my place which is in Selo, where I caused my name to dwell before, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of my people Israel. 13 And now, because ye have done all these deeds, and I spoke to you, but ye hearkened not to me; and I called you, but ye answered not; 14 therefore I also will do to the house whereon my name is called, wherein ye trust, and to the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I did to Selo. 15 And I will cast you out of my sight, as I cast away your brethren, all the seed of Ephraim. 16 Therefore pray not thou for this people, and intercede not for them to be pitied, yea, pray not, and approach me not for them: for I will not hearken [unto thee]. 17 Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Juda, and in the streets of Jerusalem? 18 Their children gather wood, and their fathers kindle a fire, and their women knead dough, to make cakes to the host of heaven; and they have poured out drink-offerings to strange gods, that they might provoke me to anger. 19 Do they provoke me to anger? saith the Lord: do they not [provoke] themselves, that their faces may be ashamed? 20 Therefore thus saith the Lord; Behold, my anger and wrath shall be poured out upon this place, and upon the men, and upon the cattle, and upon every tree of their field, and upon the fruits of the land; and it shall burn, and not be quenched. 21 Thus saith the Lord, Gather your whole-burnt-offerings with your meat-offerings, and eat flesh. 22 For I spoke not to your fathers, and commanded them not in the day wherein I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, concerning whole-burnt-offerings and sacrifice: 23 but I commanded them this thing, saying, Hear ye my voice, and I will be to you a God, and ye shall be to me a people: and walk ye in all my ways, which I shall command you, that it may be well with you. 24 But they hearkened not to me, and their ear gave no heed, but they walked in the imaginations of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward; 25 from the day that their fathers went forth out of the land of Egypt, even until this day. And I sent to you all my servants, the prophets, by day and early in the morning: yea, I sent [them], 26 but they hearkened not to me, and their ear gave no heed; and they made their neck harder than their fathers. 27 Therefore thou shalt speak this word to them; 28 This is the nation which has not hearkened to the voice of the Lord, nor received correction: truth has failed from their mouth. 29 Cut off thine hair, and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on thy lips; for the Lord has reprobated and rejected the generation that does these things. 30 For the children of Juda have wrought evil before me, saith the Lord; they have set their abominations in the house on which my name is called, to defile it. 31 And they have built the altar of Tapheth, which is in the valley of the son of Ennom, to burn their sons and their daughters with fire; which I did not command them [to do], neither did I design it in my heart. 32 Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when they shall no more say, The altar of Tapheth, and the valley of the son of Ennom, but, The valley of the slain; and they shall bury in Tapheth, for want of room. 33 And the dead bodies of this people shall be for food to the birds of the sky, and to the wild beasts of the earth; and there shall be none to drive [them] away. 34 And I will destroy out of the cities of Juda, and the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of them that make merry, and the voice of them that rejoice, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride; for the whole land shall become a desolation.

Jeremiah 8

1 At that time, saith the Lord, they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Juda, and the bones of his princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves; 2 and they shall spread them out to the sun, and the moon, and to all the stars, and to all the host of heaven, which they have loved, and which they have served, and after which they have walked, and to which they have held, and which they have worshipped; they shall not be mourned for, neither shall they be buried; but they shall be for an example on the face of the earth, 3 because they chose death rather than life, even to all the remnant that are left of that family, in every place whither I shall drive them out. 4 For thus saith the Lord, Shall not he that falls arise? or he that turns away, shall he not turn back again? 5 Wherefore has this my people turned away with a shameless revolting, and strengthened themselves in their wilfulness, and refused to return? 6 Hearken, I pray you, and hear: will they not speak thus, There is no man that repents of his wickedness, saying, What have I done? the runner has failed from his course, as a tired horse in his neighing. 7 Yea, the stork in the heaven knows her time, [also] the turtle-dove and wild swallow; the sparrows observe the times of their coming in; but this my people knows not the judgments of the Lord. 8 How will ye say, We are wise, and the law of the Lord is with us? In vain have the scribes used a false pen. 9 The wise men are ashamed, and alarmed, and taken; because they have rejected the word of the Lord; what wisdom is there in them? 10 Therefore will I give their wives to others, and their fields to [new] inheritors; and they shall gather their fruits, saith the Lord. 13 There are no grapes on the vines, and there are no figs on the fig-trees, and the leaves have fallen off. 14 Why do we sit still? assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the strong cities, and let us be cast out there: for God has cast us out, and made us drink water of gall, because we have sinned before him. 15 We assembled for peace, but there was no prosperity; for a time of healing, but behold anxiety. 16 We shall hear the neighing of his swift horses out of Dan: the whole land quaked at the sound of the neighing of his horses; and he shall come, and devour the land and the fulness of it; the city, and them that dwell in it. 17 For, behold, I send forth against you deadly serpents, which cannot be charmed, and they shall bite you 18 mortally with the pain of your distressed heart. 19 Behold, [there is] a sound of the cry of the daughter of my people from a land afar off: Is not the Lord in Sion? is there not a king there? because they have provoked me with their graven [images], and with strange vanities. 20 The summer is gone, the harvest is past, and we are not saved. 21 For the breach of the daughter of my people I have been saddened: in my perplexity pangs have seized upon me as of a woman in travail. 22 And is there no balm in Galaad, or is there no physician there? why has not the healing of the daughter of my people taken place? 23 Who will give water to my head, and a fountain of tears to my eyes? then would I weep for this my people day and night, [even] for the slain of the daughter of my people.

Jeremiah 9

1 Who would give me a most distant lodge in the wilderness, that I might leave my people, and depart from them? for they all commit adultery, an assembly of treacherous men. 2 And they have bent their tongue like a bow: falsehood and not faithfulness has prevailed upon the earth; for they have gone on from evil to evil, and have not known me, saith the Lord. 3 Beware ye each of his neighbour, and trust ye not in your brethren: for every one will surely supplant, and every friend will walk craftily. 4 Every one will mock his friend; they will not speak truth: their tongue has learned to speak falsehoods; they have committed iniquity, they ceased not, so as to return. 5 [There is] usury upon usury, and deceit upon deceit: they would not know me, saith the Lord. 6 Therefore thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will try them with fire, and prove them; for I will do [thus] because of the wickedness of the daughter of my people. 7 Their tongue is a wounding arrow; the words of their mouth are deceitful: [one] speaks peaceably to his neighbour, but in himself retains enmity. 8 Shall I not visit for these things? saith the Lord: and shall not my soul be avenged on such a people as this? 9 Take up a lamentation for the mountains, and a mournful dirge for the paths of the wilderness, for they are desolate for want of men; they heard not the sound of life from the birds of the sky, nor the cattle: they were amazed, they are gone. 10 And I will remove the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and make it a dwelling-place of dragons; and I will utterly waste the cities of Juda, so that they shall not be inhabited. 11 Who is the wise man, that he may understand this? and he that has the word of the mouth of the Lord [addressed] to him, let him tell you wherefore the land has been destroyed, has been ravaged by fire like a desert, so that no one passes through it. 12 And the Lord said to me, Because they have forsaken my law, which I set before them, and have not hearkened to my voice; 13 but went after the lusts of their evil heart, and after the idols which their fathers taught them [to worship]: 14 therefore thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Behold, I will feed them with trouble and will cause them to drink water of gall: 15 and I will scatter them among the nations, to them whom neither they nor their fathers knew; and I will send a sword upon them, until I have consumed them with it. 16 Thus saith the Lord, Call ye the mourning women, and let them come; and send to the wise women, and let them utter their voice; 17 and let them take up a lamentation for you, and let your eyes pour down tears, and your eyelids drop water. 18 For a voice of lamentation has been heard in Sion, How are we become wretched! we are greatly ashamed, for we have forsaken the land, and have abandoned our tabernacles! 19 Hear now, ye women, the word of God, and let your ears receive the words of his mouth, and teach your daughters lamentation, and [every] woman her neighbour a dirge. 20 For death has come up through your windows, it has entered into our land, to destroy the infants without, and the young men from the streets. 21 And the carcases of the men shall be for an example on the face of the field of your land, like grass after the mower, and there shall be none to gather [them]. 22 Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, and let not the strong man boast in his strength, and let not the rich man boast in his wealth; 23 but let him that boasts boast in this, the understanding and knowing that I am the Lord that exercise mercy, and judgment, and righteousness, upon the earth; for in these things is my pleasure, saith the Lord. 24 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will visit upon all the circumcised their uncircumcision; 25 on Egypt, and on Idumea, and on Edom, and on the children of Ammon, and on the children of Moab, and on every one that shaves his face round about, [even] them that dwell in the wilderness; for all the Gentiles are uncircumcised in flesh, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised [in] their hearts.

Hebrews 8

1 Now in the things which we are saying, the main point is this: we have such a high priest, who sat down on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, 2 a servant of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched, not man. 3 For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices. Therefore it is necessary that this high priest also have something to offer. 4 For if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, seeing there are priests who offer the gifts according to the law, 5 who serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things, even as Moses was warned by God when he was about to make the tabernacle, for he said, “See, you shall make everything according to the pattern that was shown to you on the mountain.” 6 But now he has obtained a more excellent ministry, by as much as he is also the mediator of a better covenant, which on better promises has been given as law. 7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second. 8 For finding fault with them, he said, “Behold, the days are coming”, says the Lord, “that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah; 9 not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; for they didn’t continue in my covenant, and I disregarded them,” says the Lord. 10 “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” says the Lord: “I will put my laws into their mind; I will also write them on their heart. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 11 They will not teach every man his fellow citizen and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for all will know me, from their least to their greatest. 12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness. I will remember their sins and lawless deeds no more.” 13 In that he says, “A new covenant”, he has made the first obsolete. But that which is becoming obsolete and grows aged is near to vanishing away.