Day 329 The Bible in a Year (Orthodox canon)

Jeremiah 16

1 And thou shalt not take a wife, saith the Lord God of Israel: 2 and there shall be no son born to thee, nor daughter in this place. 3 For thus saith the Lord concerning the sons and concerning the daughters that are born in this place, and concerning their mothers that have born them, and concerning their fathers that have begotten them in this land; 4 They shall die of grievous death; they shall not be lamented, nor buried; they shall be for an example on the face of the earth; and they shall be for the wild beasts of the land, and for the birds of the sky: they shall fall by the sword, and shall be consumed with famine. 5 Thus saith the Lord, Enter not into their mourning feast, and go not to lament, and mourn not for them: for I have removed my peace from this people. 6 They shall not bewail them, nor make cuttings for them, and they shall not shave themselves [for them]: 7 and there shall be no bread broken in mourning for them for consolation over the dead: they shall not give one to drink a cup for consolation over his father or his mother. 8 Thou shalt not enter into the banquet-house, to sit with them to eat and to drink. 9 For thus saith the Lord God of Israel; Behold, I [will] make to cease out of this place before your eyes, and in your days, the voice of joy, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride. 10 And it shall come to pass, when thou shalt report to this people all these words, and they shall say to thee, Wherefore has the Lord pronounced against us all these evils? what is our unrighteousness? and what is our sin which we have sinned before the Lord our God? 11 Then thou shalt say to them, Because your fathers forsook me, saith the Lord, and went after strange gods and served them, and worshipped them, and forsook me, and kept not my law; 12 (and ye sinned worse than your fathers; for, behold, ye walk every one after the lusts of your own evil heart, so as not to hearken to me); 13 therefore I will cast you off from this good land into a land which neither ye nor your fathers have known; and ye shall serve there other gods, who shall have no mercy upon you. 14 Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when they shall no more say, The Lord lives, that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; 15 but, The Lord lives, who brought up the house of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the countries whither they were thrust out: and I will restore them to their own land, which I gave to their fathers. 16 Behold, I [will] send many fishers, saith the Lord, and they shall fish them; and afterward I will send many hunters, and they shall hunt them upon every mountain, and upon every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks. 17 For mine eyes are upon all their ways; and their iniquities have not been hidden from mine eyes. 18 And I will recompense their mischiefs doubly, and their sins, whereby they have profaned my land with the carcases of their abominations, and with their iniquities, whereby they have trespassed against mine inheritance. 19 O Lord, thou art my strength, and mine help, and my refuge in days of evil: to thee the Gentiles shall come from the end of the earth, and shall say, How vain [were the] idols [which] our fathers procured to themselves, and there is no help in them. 20 Will a man make gods for himself, whereas these are no gods? 21 Therefore, behold, I will at this time manifest my hand to them, and will make known to them my power; and they shall know that my name is the Lord.

Jeremiah 17

5 Cursed is the man who trusts in man, and will lean his arm of flesh upon him, while his heart departs from the Lord. 6 And he shall be as the wild tamarisk in the desert: he shall not see when good comes; but he shall dwell in barren [places], and in the wilderness, in a salt land which is not inhabited. 7 But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord shall be. 8 And he shall be as a thriving tree by the waters, and he shall cast forth his root toward a moist place: he shall not fear when heat comes, and there shall be upon him shady branches: he shall not fear in a year of drought, and he shall not fail to bear fruit. 9 The heart is deep beyond all things, and it is the man, and who can know him? 10 I the Lord try the hearts, and prove the reins, to give to every one according to his ways, and according to the fruits of his devices. 11 The partridge utters her voice, she gathers [eggs] which she did not lay; [so is a man] gaining his wealth unjustly; in the midst of his days [his riches] shall leave him, and at his latter end he will be a fool. 12 An exalted throne of glory is our sanctuary. 13 O Lord, the hope of Israel, let all that have left thee be ashamed, let them that have revolted be written on the earth, because they have forsaken the fountain of life, the Lord. 14 Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved; for thou art my boast. 15 Behold, they say to me, Where is the word of the Lord? let it come. 16 But I have not been weary of following thee, nor have I desired the day of man; thou knowest; the [words] that proceed out of my lips are before thy face. 17 Be not to me a stranger, [but] spare me in the evil day. 18 Let them that persecute me be ashamed, but let me not be ashamed: let them be alarmed, but let me not be alarmed: bring upon them the evil day, crush them with double destruction. 19 Thus saith the Lord; Go and stand in the gates of the children of thy people, by which the kings of Juda enter, and by which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem: 20 and thou shalt say to them, Hear the word of the Lord, ye kings of Juda, and all Judea, and all Jerusalem, [all] who go in at these gates: 21 thus saith the Lord; Take heed to your souls, and take up no burdens on the sabbath-day, and go not forth [through] the gates of Jerusalem; 22 and carry forth no burdens out of your houses on the sabbath-day, and ye shall do no work: sanctify the sabbath-day, as I commanded your fathers. 23 But they hearkened not, and inclined not their ear, but stiffened their neck more than their fathers [did], so as not to hear me, and not to receive correction. 24 And it shall come to pass, if ye will hearken to me, saith the Lord, to carry in no burdens through the gates of this city on the sabbath-day, and to sanctify the sabbath-day, so as to do no work [upon it], 25 that there shall enter through the gates of this city kings and princes sitting on the throne of David, and riding on their chariots and horses, they, and their princes, the men of Juda, and the dwellers in Jerusalem: and this city shall be inhabited for ever. 26 And [men] shall come out of the cities of Juda, and from round about Jerusalem, and out of the land of Benjamin, and out of the plain country, and from the hill country, and from the south [country], bringing whole-burnt-offerings, and sacrifices, and incense, and manna, and frankincense, bringing praise to the house of the Lord. 27 But it shall come to pass, if ye will not hearken to me to sanctify the sabbath-day, to bear no burdens, nor go in [with them by] the gates of Jerusalem on the sabbath-day; then will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof, and it shall devour the streets of Jerusalem, and shall not be quenched.

Jeremiah 18

1 The word that came from the Lord to 2 Jeremias, saying, Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there thou shalt hear my words. 3 So I went down to the potter's house, and behold, he was making a vessel on the stones. 4 And the vessel which he was making with his hands fell: so he made it again another vessel, as it seemed good to him to make [it]. 5 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 6 Shall I not be able, O house of Israel, to do to you as this potter? behold, as the clay of the potter are ye in my hands. 7 [If] I shall pronounce a decree upon a nation, or upon a kingdom, to cut them off, and to destroy [them]; 8 and that nation turn from all their sins, then will I repent of the evils which I purposed to do to them. 9 And [if] I shall pronounce a decree upon a nation and kingdom, to rebuild and to plant [it]; 10 and they do evil before me, so as not to hearken to my voice, then will I repent of the good which I spoke of, to do it to them. 11 And now say to the men of Juda, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, Behold, I prepare evils against you, and devise a device against you: let every one turn now from his evil way, and amend your practices. 12 And they said, We will quit ourselves like men, for we will pursue our perverse ways, and we will perform each the lusts of his evil heart. 13 Therefore thus saith the Lord; Enquire now among the nations, who has heard such very horrible things as the virgin of Israel has done? 14 Will fertilising streams fail [to flow] from a rock, or snow [fail] from Libanus? will water violently impelled by the wind turn aside? 15 For my people have forgotten me, they have offered incense in vain, and they fail in their ways, [leaving] the ancient tracks, to enter upon impassable paths; 16 to make their land a desolation, and a perpetual hissing; all that go through it shall be amazed, and shall shake their heads. 17 I will scatter them before their enemies like an east wind; I will shew them the day of their destruction. 18 Then they said, Come, and let us devise a device against Jeremias; for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, and let us smite him with the tongue, and we will hear all his words. 19 Hear me, O Lord, and hear the voice of my pleading. 20 Forasmuch as evil is rewarded for good; for they have spoken words against my soul, and they have hidden the punishment they [meant] for me; remember that I stood before thy face, to speak good for them, to turn away thy wrath from them. 21 Therefore do thou deliver their sons to famine, and gather them to the power of the sword: let their women be childless and widows; and let their men be cut off by death, and their young men fall by the sword in war. 22 Let there be a cry in their houses: thou shalt bring upon them robbers suddenly: for they have formed a plan to take me, and have hidden snares for me. 23 And thou, Lord, knowest all their deadly counsel against me: account not their iniquities guiltless, and blot not out their sins from before thee: let their weakness come before thee; deal with them in the time of thy wrath.

Hebrews 10

1 For the law, having a shadow of the good to come, not the very image of the things, can never with the same sacrifices year by year, which they offer continually, make perfect those who draw near. 2 Or else wouldn’t they have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having been once cleansed, would have had no more consciousness of sins? 3 But in those sacrifices there is a yearly reminder of sins. 4 For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins. 5 Therefore when he comes into the world, he says, “You didn’t desire sacrifice and offering, but you prepared a body for me. 6 You had no pleasure in whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin. 7 Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come (in the scroll of the book it is written of me) to do your will, O God.’” 8 Previously saying, “Sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin you didn’t desire, neither had pleasure in them” (those which are offered according to the law), 9 then he has said, “Behold, I have come to do your will.” He takes away the first, that he may establish the second, 10 by which will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. 11 Every priest indeed stands day by day serving and offering often the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins, 12 but he, when he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God, 13 from that time waiting until his enemies are made the footstool of his feet. 14 For by one offering he has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. 15 The Holy Spirit also testifies to us, for after saying, 16 “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days,” says the Lord, “I will put my laws on their heart, I will also write them on their mind;” then he says, 17 “I will remember their sins and their iniquities no more.” 18 Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin. 19 Having therefore, brothers, boldness to enter into the holy place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by the way which he dedicated for us, a new and living way, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh, 21 and having a great priest over God’s house, 22 let’s draw near with a true heart in fullness of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and having our body washed with pure water, 23 let’s hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering; for he who promised is faithful. 24 Let’s consider how to provoke one another to love and good works, 25 not forsaking our own assembling together, as the custom of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching. 26 For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remains no more a sacrifice for sins, 27 but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and a fierceness of fire which will devour the adversaries. 28 A man who disregards Moses’ law dies without compassion on the word of two or three witnesses. 29 How much worse punishment do you think he will be judged worthy of who has trodden under foot the Son of God, and has counted the blood of the covenant with which he was sanctified an unholy thing, and has insulted the Spirit of grace? 30 For we know him who said, “Vengeance belongs to me. I will repay,” says the Lord. Again, “The Lord will judge his people.” 31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. 32 But remember the former days, in which, after you were enlightened, you endured a great struggle with sufferings: 33 partly, being exposed to both reproaches and oppressions, and partly, becoming partakers with those who were treated so. 34 For you both had compassion on me in my chains and joyfully accepted the plundering of your possessions, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and an enduring one in the heavens. 35 Therefore don’t throw away your boldness, which has a great reward. 36 For you need endurance so that, having done the will of God, you may receive the promise. 37 “In a very little while, he who comes will come and will not wait. 38 But the righteous one will live by faith. If he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.” 39 But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the saving of the soul.