Day 48 The Bible in a Year (Orthodox canon)

Numbers 23

1 And Balaam said to Balac, Build me here seven altars, and prepare me here seven calves, and seven rams. 2 And Balac did as Balaam told him; and he offered up a calf and a ram on [every] altar. 3 And Balaam said to Balac, Stand by thy sacrifice, and I will go and see if God will appear to me and meet me, and the word which he shall shew me, I will report to thee. And Balac stood by his sacrifice. 4 And Balaam went to enquire of God; and he went straight forward, and God appeared to Balaam; and Balaam said to him, I have prepared the seven altars, and have offered a calf and a ram on [every] altar. 5 And God put a word into the mouth of Balaam, and said, Thou shalt return to Balac, and thus shalt thou speak. 6 And he returned to him, and moreover he stood over his whole-burnt-offerings, and all the princes of Moab with him; and the Spirit of God came upon him. 7 And he took up his parable, and said, Balac king of Moab sent for me out of Mesopotamia, out of the mountains of the east, saying, Come, curse me Jacob, and Come, call for a curse for me upon Israel. 8 How can I curse whom the Lord curses not? or how can I devote whom God devotes not? 9 For from the top of the mountains I shall see him, and from the hills I shall observe him: behold, the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations. 10 Who has exactly calculated the seed of Jacob, and who shall number the families of Israel? let my soul die with the souls of the righteous, and let my seed be as their seed. 11 And Balac said to Balaam, What hast thou done to me? I called thee to curse my enemies, and behold thou hast greatly blessed [them]. 12 And Balaam said to Balac, Whatsoever the Lord shall put into my mouth, shall I not take heed to speak this? 13 And Balac said to him, Come yet with me to another place where thou shalt not see the people, but only thou shalt see a part of them, and shalt not see them all; and curse me them from thence. 14 And he took him to a high place of the field to the top of the quarried [rock], and he built there seven altars, and offered a calf and a ram on [every] altar. 15 And Balaam said to Balac, Stand by thy sacrifice, and I will go to enquire of God. 16 And God met Balaam, and put a word into his mouth, and said, Return to Balac, and thus shalt thou speak. 17 And he returned to him: and he also was standing by his whole-burnt-sacrifice, and all the princes of Moab with him; and Balac said to him, What has the Lord spoken? 18 And he took up his parable, and said, Rise up, Balac, and hear; hearken as a witness, thou son of Sepphor. 19 God is not as man to waver, nor as the son of man to be threatened; shall he say and not perform? shall he speak and not keep [to his word]? 20 Behold, I have received [commandment] to bless: I will bless, and not turn back. 21 There shall not be trouble in Jacob, neither shall sorrow be seen in Israel: the Lord his God [is] with him, the glories of rulers [are] in him. 22 It was God who brought him out of Egypt; he has as it were the glory of a unicorn. 23 For there is no divination in Jacob, nor enchantment in Israel; in season it shall be told to Jacob and Israel what God shall perform. 24 Behold, the people shall rise up as a lion's whelp, and shall exalt himself as a lion; he shall not lie down till he have eaten the prey, and he shall drink the blood of the slain. 25 And Balac said to Balaam, Neither curse the people at all for me, nor bless them at all. 26 And Balaam answered and said to Balac, Spoke I not to thee, saying, Whatsoever thing God shall speak to me, that will I do? 27 And Balac said to Balaam, Come [and] I will remove thee to another place, if it shall please God, and curse me them from thence. 28 And Balac took Balaam to the top of Phogor, which extends to the wilderness. 29 And Balaam said to Balac, Build me here seven altars, and prepare me here seven calves, and seven rams. 30 And Balac did as Balaam told him, and offered a calf and a ram on [every] altar.

Numbers 24

1 And when Balaam saw that it pleased God to bless Israel, he did not go according to his custom to meet the omens, but turned his face toward the wilderness. 2 And Balaam lifted up his eyes, and sees Israel encamped by their tribes; and the Spirit of God came upon him. 3 And he took up his parable and said, Balaam son of Beor says, the man who sees truly says, 4 he says who hears the oracle of the Mighty One, who saw a vision of God in sleep; his eyes were opened: 5 How goodly [are] thy habitations, Jacob, and thy tents, Israel! 6 as shady groves, and as gardens by a river, and as tents which God pitched, and as cedars by the waters. 7 There shall come a man out of his seed, and he shall rule over many nations; and the kingdom of Gog shall be exalted, and his kingdom shall be increased. 8 God led him out of Egypt; he has as it were the glory of a unicorn: he shall consume the nations of his enemies, and he shall drain their marrow, and with his darts he shall shoot through the enemy. 9 He lay down, he rested as a lion, and as a young lion; who shall stir him up? they that bless thee are blessed, and they that curse thee are cursed. 10 And Balac was angry with Balaam, and clapped his hands together; and Balac said to Balaam, I called thee to curse my enemy, and behold thou hast decidedly blessed [him] this third time. 11 Now therefore flee to thy place: I said, I will honour thee, but now the Lord has deprived thee of glory. 12 And Balaam said to Balac, Did I not speak to thy messengers also whom thou sentest to me, saying, 13 If Balac should give me his house full of silver and gold, I shall not be able to transgress the word of the Lord to make it good or bad by myself; whatsoever things God shall say, them will I speak. 14 And now, behold, I return to my place; come, I will advise thee of what this people shall do to thy people in the last days. 15 And he took up his parable and said, Balaam the son of Beor says, the man who sees truly says, 16 hearing the oracles of God, receiving knowledge from the Most High, and having seen a vision of God in sleep; his eyes were opened. 17 I will point to him, but not now; I bless him, but he draws not near: a star shall rise out of Jacob, a man shall spring out of Israel; and shall crush the princes of Moab, and shall spoil all the sons of Seth. 18 And Edom shall be an inheritance, and Esau his enemy shall be an inheritance [of Israel], and Israel wrought valiantly. 19 And [one] shall arise out of Jacob, and destroy out of the city him that escapes. 20 And having seen Amalec, he took up his parable and said, Amalec [is] the first of the nations; yet his seed shall perish. 21 And having seen the Kenite, he took up his parable and said, Thy dwelling-place [is] strong; yet though thou shouldest put thy nest in a rock, 22 and though Beor should have a skilfully contrived hiding-place, the Assyrians shall carry thee away captive. 23 And he looked upon Og, and took up his parable and said, Oh, oh, who shall live, when God shall do these things? 24 And one shall come forth from the hands of the Citians, and shall afflict Assur, and shall afflict the Hebrews, and they shall perish together. 25 And Balaam rose up and departed and returned to his place, and Balac went to his own home.

Numbers 25

1 And Israel sojourned in Sattin, and the people profaned itself by going a-whoring after the daughters of Moab. 2 And they called them to the sacrifices of their idols; and the people ate of their sacrifices, and worshipped their idols. 3 And Israel consecrated themselves to Beel-phegor; and the Lord was very angry with Israel. 4 And the Lord said to Moses, Take all the princes of the people, and make them examples [of judgment] for the Lord in the face of the sun, and the anger of the Lord shall be turned away from Israel. 5 And Moses said to the tribes of Israel, Slay ye every one his friend that is consecrated to Beel-phegor. 6 And, behold, a man of the children of Israel came and brought his brother to a Madianitish woman before Moses, and before all the congregation of the children of Israel; and they were weeping at the door of the tabernacle of witness. 7 And Phinees the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, and rose out of the midst of the congregation, and took a javelin in his hand, 8 and went in after the Israelitish man into the chamber, and pierced them both through, both the Israelitish man, and the woman through her womb; and the plague was stayed from the children of Israel. 9 And those that died in the plague were four and twenty thousand. 10 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 11 Phinees the son of Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest has caused my wrath to cease from the children of Israel, when I was exceedingly jealous among them, and I did not consume the children of Israel in my jealousy. 12 Thus do thou say [to him], Behold, I give him a covenant of peace: 13 and he and his seed after him shall have a perpetual covenant of priesthood, because he was zealous for his God, and made atonement for the children of Israel. 14 Now the name of the smitten Israelitish man, who was smitten with the Madianitish woman, [was] Zambri son of Salmon, prince of a house of the tribe of Symeon. 15 And the name of the Madianitish woman who was smitten, [was] Chasbi, daughter of Sur, a prince of the nation of Ommoth: it is a chief house among the people of Madiam. 16 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the children of Israel, saying, 17 Plague the Madianites as enemies, and smite them, 18 for they are enemies to you by the treachery wherein they ensnare you through Phogor, and through Chasbi their sister, daughter of a prince of Madiam, who was smitten in the day of the plague because of Phogor.

Mark 7

1 Then the Pharisees and some of the scribes gathered together to him, having come from Jerusalem. 2 Now when they saw some of his disciples eating bread with defiled, that is unwashed, hands, they found fault. 3 (For the Pharisees and all the Jews don’t eat unless they wash their hands and forearms, holding to the tradition of the elders. 4 They don’t eat when they come from the marketplace unless they bathe themselves, and there are many other things which they have received to hold to: washings of cups, pitchers, bronze vessels, and couches.) 5 The Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why don’t your disciples walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat their bread with unwashed hands?” 6 He answered them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. 7 They worship me in vain, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ 8 “For you set aside the commandment of God, and hold tightly to the tradition of men—the washing of pitchers and cups, and you do many other such things.” 9 He said to them, “Full well do you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition. 10 For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother;’ and, ‘He who speaks evil of father or mother, let him be put to death.’ 11 But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, “Whatever profit you might have received from me is Corban,”’” that is to say, given to God, 12 “then you no longer allow him to do anything for his father or his mother, 13 making void the word of God by your tradition which you have handed down. You do many things like this.” 14 He called all the multitude to himself and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand. 15 There is nothing from outside of the man that going into him can defile him; but the things which proceed out of the man are those that defile the man. 16 If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear!” 17 When he had entered into a house away from the multitude, his disciples asked him about the parable. 18 He said to them, “Are you also without understanding? Don’t you perceive that whatever goes into the man from outside can’t defile him, 19 because it doesn’t go into his heart, but into his stomach, then into the latrine, making all foods clean?” 20 He said, “That which proceeds out of the man, that defiles the man. 21 For from within, out of the hearts of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, sexual sins, murders, thefts, 22 covetings, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, and foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within and defile the man.” 24 From there he arose and went away into the borders of Tyre and Sidon. He entered into a house and didn’t want anyone to know it, but he couldn’t escape notice. 25 For a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit, having heard of him, came and fell down at his feet. 26 Now the woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by race. She begged him that he would cast the demon out of her daughter. 27 But Jesus said to her, “Let the children be filled first, for it is not appropriate to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” 28 But she answered him, “Yes, Lord. Yet even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” 29 He said to her, “For this saying, go your way. The demon has gone out of your daughter.” 30 She went away to her house, and found the child having been laid on the bed, with the demon gone out. 31 Again he departed from the borders of Tyre and Sidon, and came to the sea of Galilee through the middle of the region of Decapolis. 32 They brought to him one who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech. They begged him to lay his hand on him. 33 He took him aside from the multitude privately and put his fingers into his ears; and he spat and touched his tongue. 34 Looking up to heaven, he sighed, and said to him, “Ephphatha!” that is, “Be opened!” 35 Immediately his ears were opened, and the impediment of his tongue was released, and he spoke clearly. 36 He commanded them that they should tell no one, but the more he commanded them, so much the more widely they proclaimed it. 37 They were astonished beyond measure, saying, “He has done all things well. He makes even the deaf hear and the mute speak!”