Day 55 The Bible in a Year (Orthodox canon)

Deuteronomy 8

1 Ye shall observe to do all the commands which I charge you to-day, that ye may live and be multiplied, and enter in and inherit the land, which the Lord your God sware [to give] to your fathers. 2 And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee in the wilderness, that he might afflict thee, and try thee, and that the things in thine heart might be made manifest, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments or no. 3 And he afflicted thee and straitened thee with hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thy fathers knew not; that he might teach thee that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God shall man live. 4 Thy garments grew not old from off thee, thy shoes were not worn from off thee, thy feet were not [painfully] hardened, lo! these forty years. 5 And thou shalt know in thine heart, that as if any man should chasten his son, so the Lord thy God will chasten thee. 6 And thou shalt keep the commands of the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, and to fear him. 7 For the Lord thy God will bring thee into a good and extensive land, where there are torrents of waters, and fountains of deep places issuing through the plains and through the mountains: 8 a land of wheat and barley, [wherein are] vines, figs, pomegranates; a land of olive oil and honey; 9 a land on which thou shalt not eat thy bread with poverty, and thou shalt not want any thing upon it; a land whose stones are iron, and out of its mountains thou shalt dig brass. 10 And thou shalt eat and be filled, and shalt bless the Lord thy God on the good land, which he has given thee. 11 Take heed to thyself that thou forget not the Lord thy God, so as not to keep his commands, and his judgments, and ordinances, which I command thee this day: 12 lest when thou hast eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses, and dwelt in them; 13 and thy oxen and thy sheep are multiplied to thee, and thy silver and thy gold are multiplied to thee, and all thy possessions are multiplied to thee, 14 thou shouldest be exalted in heart, and forget the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage: 15 who brought thee through that great and terrible wilderness, where [is] the biting serpent, and scorpion, and drought, where there was no water; who brought thee a fountain of water out of the flinty rock: 16 who fed thee with manna in the wilderness, which thou knewest not, and thy fathers knew not; that he might afflict thee, and thoroughly try thee, and do thee good in thy latter days. 17 Lest thou shouldest say in thine heart, My strength, and the power of mine hand have wrought for me this great wealth. 18 But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God, that he gives thee strength to get wealth; even that he may establish his covenant, which the Lord sware to thy fathers, as at this day. 19 And it shall come to pass if thou do at all forget the Lord thy God, and shouldest go after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that ye shall surely perish. 20 As also the other nations which the Lord God destroys before your face, so shall ye perish, because ye hearkened not to the voice of the Lord your God.

Deuteronomy 9

1 Hear, O Israel: Thou goest this day across Jordan to inherit nations greater and stronger than yourselves, cities great and walled up to heaven; 2 a people great and many and tall, the sons of Enac, whom thou knowest, and concerning whom thou hast heard [say], Who can stand before the children of Enac? 3 And thou shalt know to-day, that the Lord thy God he shall go before thy face: he is a consuming fire; he shall destroy them, and he shall turn them back before thee, and shall destroy them quickly, as the Lord said to thee. 4 Speak not in thine heart, when the Lord thy God has destroyed these nations before thy face, saying, For my righteousness the Lord brought me in to inherit this good land. 5 Not for thy righteousness, nor for the holiness of thy heart, dost thou go in to inherit their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations the Lord will destroy them from before thee, and that he may establish the covenant, which the Lord sware to our fathers, to Abraam, and to Isaac, and to Jacob. 6 And thou shalt know to-day, that [it is] not for thy righteousnesses the Lord thy God gives thee this good land to inherit, for thou art a stiff-necked people. 7 Remember, forget not, how much thou provokedst the Lord thy God in the wilderness: from the day that ye came forth out of Egypt, even till ye came into this place, ye continued to be disobedient toward the Lord. 8 Also in Choreb ye provoked the Lord, and the Lord was angry with you to destroy you; 9 when I went up into the mountain to receive the tables of stone, the tables of the covenant, which the Lord made with you, and I was in the mountain forty days and forty nights, I ate no bread and drank no water. 10 And the Lord gave me the two tables of stone written with the finger of God, and on them there had been written all the words which the Lord spoke to you in the mountain in the day of the assembly. 11 And it came to pass after forty days and forty nights, the Lord gave me the two tables of stone, the tables of the covenant. 12 And the Lord said to me, Arise, go down quickly from hence, for thy people whom thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt have transgressed; they have gone aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them, and have made themselves a molten image. 13 And the Lord spoke to me, saying, I have spoken to thee once and again, saying, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiff-necked people. 14 And now suffer me utterly to destroy them, and I will blot out their name from under heaven, and will make of thee a nation great and strong, and more numerous than this. 15 And I turned and went down from the mountain; and the mountain burned with fire to heaven; and the two tables of the testimonies [were] in my two hands. 16 And when I saw that ye had sinned against the Lord your God, and had made to yourselves a molten image, and had gone astray out of the way, which the Lord commanded you to keep; 17 then I took hold of the two tables, and cast them out of my two hands, and broke them before you. 18 And I made my petition before the Lord as also at the first forty days and forty nights: I ate no bread and drank no water, on account of all your sins which ye sinned in doing evil before the Lord God to provoke him. 19 And I was greatly terrified because of the wrath and anger, because the Lord was provoked with you utterly to destroy you; yet the Lord hearkened to me at this time also. 20 And he was angry with Aaron to destroy him utterly, and I prayed for Aaron also at that time. 21 And your sin which ye had made, [even] the calf, I took, and burnt it with fire, and pounded it and ground it down till it became fine; and it became like dust, and I cast the dust into the brook that descended from the mountain. 22 Also in the burning, and in the temptation, and at the graves of lust, ye provoked the Lord. 23 And when the Lord sent you forth from Cades Barne, saying, Go up and inherit the land which I give to you, then ye disobeyed the word of the Lord your God, and believed him not, and hearkened not to his voice. 24 Ye were disobedient in the things relating to the Lord from the day in which he became known to you. 25 And I prayed before the Lord forty days and forty nights, the number that I prayed [before], for the Lord said that he would utterly destroy you. 26 And I prayed to God, and said, O Lord, King of gods, destroy not thy people and thine inheritance, whom thou didst redeem, whom thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt with thy great power, and with thy strong hand, and with thy high arm. 27 Remember Abraam, and Isaac, and Jacob thy servants, to whom thou swarest by thyself: look not upon the hardness of heart of this people, and their impieties, and their sins. 28 Lest the inhabitants of the land whence thou broughtest us out speak, saying, Because the Lord could not bring them into the land of which he spoke to them, and because he hated them, has he brought them forth to slay them in the wilderness. 29 And these [are] thy people and thy portion, whom thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt with thy great strength, and with thy mighty hand, and with thy high arm.

Deuteronomy 10

1 At that time the Lord said to me, Hew for thyself two stone tables as the first, and come up to me into the mountain, and thou shalt make for thyself an ark of wood. 2 And thou shalt write upon the tables the words which were on the first tables which thou didst break, and thou shalt put them into the ark. 3 So I made an ark of boards of incorruptible wood, and I hewed tables of stone like the first, and I went up to the mountain, and the two tables were in my hand. 4 And he wrote upon the tables according to the first writing the ten commandments, which the Lord spoke to you in the mountain out of the midst of the fire, and the Lord gave them to me. 5 And I turned and came down from the mountain, and I put the tables into the ark which I had made; and there they were, as the Lord commanded me. 6 And the children of Israel departed from Beeroth of the sons of Jakim [to] Misadai: there Aaron died, and there he was buried, and Eleazar his son was priest in his stead. 7 Thence they departed to Gadgad; and from Gadgad to Etebatha, a land [wherein are] torrents of water. 8 At that time the Lord separated the tribe of Levi, to bear the ark of the covenant of the Lord, to stand near before the Lord, to minister and bless in his name to this day. 9 Therefore the Levites have no part nor inheritance among their brethren; the Lord himself [is] their inheritance, as he said to them. 10 And I remained in the mount forty days and forty nights: and the Lord heard me at that time also, and the Lord would not destroy you. 11 And the Lord said to me, Go, set out before this people, and let them go in and inherit the land, which I sware to their fathers to give to them. 12 And now, Israel, what does the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, and to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul; 13 to keep the commandments of the Lord thy God, and his ordinances, all that I charge thee to-day, that it may be well with thee? 14 Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens belong to the Lord thy God, the earth and all things that are in it. 15 Only the Lord chose your fathers to love them, and he chose out their seed after them, [even] you, beyond all nations, as at this day. 16 Therefore ye shall circumcise the hardness of your heart, and ye shall not harden your neck. 17 For the Lord your God, he [is] God of gods, and Lord of lords, the great, and strong, and terrible God, who does not accept persons, nor will he by any means accept a bribe: 18 executing judgment for the stranger and orphan and widow, and he loves the stranger to give him food and raiment. 19 And ye shall love the stranger; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt. 20 Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and serve him, and shalt cleave to him, and shalt swear by his name. 21 He [is] thy boast, and he [is] thy God, who has wrought in the midst of thee these great and glorious things, which thine eyes have seen. 22 With seventy souls your fathers went down into Egypt; but the Lord thy God has made thee as the stars of heaven in multitude.

Mark 12

1 He began to speak to them in parables. “A man planted a vineyard, put a hedge around it, dug a pit for the wine press, built a tower, rented it out to a farmer, and went into another country. 2 When it was time, he sent a servant to the farmer to get from the farmer his share of the fruit of the vineyard. 3 They took him, beat him, and sent him away empty. 4 Again, he sent another servant to them; and they threw stones at him, wounded him in the head, and sent him away shamefully treated. 5 Again he sent another, and they killed him, and many others, beating some, and killing some. 6 Therefore still having one, his beloved son, he sent him last to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 7 But those farmers said among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ 8 They took him, killed him, and cast him out of the vineyard. 9 What therefore will the lord of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the farmers, and will give the vineyard to others. 10 Haven’t you even read this Scripture: ‘The stone which the builders rejected was made the head of the corner. 11 This was from the Lord. It is marvelous in our eyes’?” 12 They tried to seize him, but they feared the multitude; for they perceived that he spoke the parable against them. They left him and went away. 13 They sent some of the Pharisees and the Herodians to him, that they might trap him with words. 14 When they had come, they asked him, “Teacher, we know that you are honest, and don’t defer to anyone; for you aren’t partial to anyone, but truly teach the way of God. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not? 15 Shall we give, or shall we not give?” But he, knowing their hypocrisy, said to them, “Why do you test me? Bring me a denarius, that I may see it.” 16 They brought it. He said to them, “Whose is this image and inscription?” They said to him, “Caesar’s.” 17 Jesus answered them, “Give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” They marveled greatly at him. 18 Some Sadducees, who say that there is no resurrection, came to him. They asked him, saying, 19 “Teacher, Moses wrote to us, ‘If a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife behind him, and leaves no children, that his brother should take his wife and raise up offspring for his brother.’ 20 There were seven brothers. The first took a wife, and dying left no offspring. 21 The second took her, and died, leaving no children behind him. The third likewise; 22 and the seven took her and left no children. Last of all the woman also died. 23 In the resurrection, when they rise, whose wife will she be of them? For the seven had her as a wife.” 24 Jesus answered them, “Isn’t this because you are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God? 25 For when they will rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. 26 But about the dead, that they are raised, haven’t you read in the book of Moses about the Bush, how God spoke to him, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? 27 He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You are therefore badly mistaken.” 28 One of the scribes came and heard them questioning together, and knowing that he had answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the greatest of all?” 29 Jesus answered, “The greatest is: ‘Hear, Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment. 31 The second is like this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” 32 The scribe said to him, “Truly, teacher, you have said well that he is one, and there is none other but he; 33 and to love him with all the heart, with all the understanding, all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbor as himself, is more important than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” 34 When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from God’s Kingdom.” No one dared ask him any question after that. 35 Jesus responded, as he taught in the temple, “How is it that the scribes say that the Christ is the son of David? 36 For David himself said in the Holy Spirit, ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies the footstool of your feet.”’ 37 Therefore David himself calls him Lord, so how can he be his son?” The common people heard him gladly. 38 In his teaching he said to them, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk in long robes, and to get greetings in the marketplaces, 39 and to get the best seats in the synagogues and the best places at feasts, 40 those who devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. These will receive greater condemnation.” 41 Jesus sat down opposite the treasury and saw how the multitude cast money into the treasury. Many who were rich cast in much. 42 A poor widow came and she cast in two small brass coins, which equal a quadrans coin. 43 He called his disciples to himself and said to them, “Most certainly I tell you, this poor widow gave more than all those who are giving into the treasury, 44 for they all gave out of their abundance, but she, out of her poverty, gave all that she had to live on.”