Day 59 The Bible in a Year (Orthodox canon)

Deuteronomy 20

1 And if thou shouldest go forth to war against thine enemies, and shouldest see horse, and rider, and a people more numerous than thyself; thou shalt not be afraid of them, for the Lord thy God [is] with thee, who brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. 2 And it shall come to pass whenever thou shalt draw nigh to battle, that the priest shall draw nigh and speak to the people, and shall say to them, 3 Hear, O Israel; ye are going this day to battle against your enemies: let not your heart faint, fear not, neither be confounded, neither turn aside from their face. 4 For [it is] the Lord your God who advances with you, to fight with you against your enemies, [and] to save you. 5 And the scribes shall speak to the people, saying, What man [is] he that has built a new house, and has not dedicated it? let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the war, and another man dedicate it. 6 And what man [is] he that has planted a vineyard, and not been made merry with it? let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man be made merry with it. 7 And what man [is] he that has betrothed a wife, and has not taken her? let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man take her. 8 And the scribes shall speak further to the people, and say, What man [is] he that fears and is cowardly in his heart? Let him go and return to his house, lest he make the heart of his brother fail, as his own. 9 And it shall come to pass when the scribes shall have ceased speaking to the people, that they shall appoint generals of the army to be leaders of the people. 10 And if thou shalt draw nigh to a city to overcome them by war, then call them out peaceably. 11 If then they should answer peaceably to thee, and open to thee, it shall be that all the people found in it shall be tributary and subject to thee. 12 But if they will not hearken to thee, but wage war against thee, thou shalt invest it; 13 until the Lord thy God shall deliver it into thy hands, and thou shalt smite every male of it with the edge of the sword: 14 except the women and the stuff: and all the cattle, and whatsoever shall be in the city, and all the plunder thou shalt take as spoil for thyself, and shalt eat all the plunder of thine enemies whom the Lord thy God gives thee. 15 Thus shalt thou do to all the cities that are very far off from thee, not [being] of the cities of these nations which the Lord thy God gives thee to inherit their land. 16 [Of these] ye shall not take any thing alive; 17 but ye shall surely curse them, the Chettite, and the Amorite, and the Chananite, and the Pherezite, and the Evite, and the Jebusite, and the Gergesite; as the Lord thy God commanded thee: 18 that they may not teach you to do all their abominations, which they did to their gods, and [so] ye should sin before the Lord your God. 19 And if thou shouldest besiege a city many days to prevail against it by war to take it, thou shalt not destroy its trees, by applying an iron tool to them, but thou shalt eat of it, and shalt not cut it down: Is the tree that is in the field a man, to enter before thee into the work of the siege? 20 But the tree which thou knowest to be not fruit-bearing, this thou shalt destroy and cut down; and thou shalt construct a mound against the city, which makes war against thee, until it be delivered up.

Deuteronomy 21

1 And if one be found slain with the sword in the land, which the Lord thy God gives thee to inherit, having fallen in the field, and they do not know who has smitten [him]; 2 thine elders and thy judges shall come forth, and shall measure the distances of the cities round about the slain man: 3 and it shall be that the city which is nearest to the slain man the elders of that city shall take a heifer of the herd, which has not laboured, and which has not borne a yoke. 4 And the elders of that city shall bring down the heifer into a rough valley, which has not been tilled and is not sown, and they shall slay the heifer in the valley. 5 And the priests the Levites shall come, because the Lord God has chosen them to stand by him, and to bless in his name, and by their word shall every controversy and every stroke be [decided]. 6 And all the elders of that city who draw nigh to the slain man shall wash their hands over the head of the heifer which was slain in the valley; 7 and they shall answer and say, Our hands have not shed this blood, and our eyes have not seen [it]. 8 Be merciful to thy people Israel, whom thou hast redeemed, O Lord, that innocent blood may not be charged on thy people Israel: and the blood shall be atoned for to them. 9 And thou shalt take away innocent blood from among you, if thou shouldest do that which is good and pleasing before the Lord thy God. 10 And if when thou goest out to war against thine enemies, the Lord thy God should deliver them into thine hands, and thou shouldest take their spoil, 11 and shouldest see among the spoil a woman beautiful in countenance, and shouldest desire her, and take her to thyself for a wife, 12 and shouldest bring her within thine house: then shalt thou shave her head, and pare her nails; 13 and shalt take away her garments of captivity from off her, and she shall abide in thine house, and shall bewail her father and mother the days of a month; and afterwards thou shalt go in to her and dwell with her, and she shall be thy wife. 14 And it shall be if thou do not delight in her, thou shalt send her out free; and she shall not by any means be sold for money, thou shalt not treat her contemptuously, because thou hast humbled her. 15 And if a man have two wives, the one loved and the other hated, and both the loved and the hated should have born him [children], and the son of the hated should be first-born; 16 then it shall be that whensoever he shall divide by inheritance his goods to his sons, he shall not be able to give the right of the first-born to the son of the loved one, having overlooked the son of the hated, which is the first-born. 17 But he shall acknowledge the first-born of the hated one to give to him double of all things which shall be found by him, because he is the first of his children, and to him belongs the birthright. 18 And if any man has a disobedient and contentious son, who hearkens not to the voice of his father and the voice of his mother, and they should correct him, and he should not hearken to them; 19 then shall his father and his mother take hold of him, and bring him forth to the elders of his city, and to the gate of the place: 20 and they shall say to the men of their city, This our son is disobedient and contentious, he hearkens not to our voice, he is a reveller and a drunkard. 21 And the men of his city shall stone him with stones, and he shall die; and thou shalt remove the evil one from yourselves, and the rest shall hear and fear. 22 And if there be sin in any one, [and] the judgment of death [be upon him], and he be put to death, and ye hang him on a tree: 23 his body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but ye shall by all means bury it in that day; for every one that is hanged on a tree is cursed of God; and ye shall by no means defile the land which the Lord thy God gives thee for an inheritance.

Deuteronomy 22

1 When thou seest the calf of thy brother or his sheep wandering in the way, thou shalt not overlook them; thou shalt by all means turn them back to thy brother, and thou shalt restore them to him. 2 And if thy brother do not come nigh thee, and thou dost not know him, thou shalt bring it into thy house within; and it shall be with thee until thy brother shall seek them, and thou shalt restore them to him. 3 Thus shalt thou do to his ass, and thus shalt thou do to his garment, and thus shalt thou do to every thing that thy brother has lost; whatsoever shall have been lost by him, and thou shalt have found, thou shalt not have power to overlook. 4 Thou shalt not see the ass of thy brother, or his calf, fallen in the way: thou shalt not overlook them, thou shalt surely help him to raise them up. 5 The apparel of a man shall not be on a woman, neither shall a man put on a woman's dress; for every one that does these things is an abomination to the Lord thy God. 6 And if thou shouldest come upon a brood of birds before thy face in the way or upon any tree, or upon the earth, young or eggs, and the mother be brooding on the young or the eggs, thou shalt not take the dam with the young ones. 7 Thou shalt by all means let the mother go, but thou shalt take the young to thyself; that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest live long. 8 If thou shouldest build a new house, then shalt thou make a parapet to thy house; so thou shalt not bring blood-guiltiness upon thy house, if one should in any wise fall from it. 9 Thou shalt not sow thy vineyard with diverse seed, lest the fruit be devoted, and whatsoever seed thou mayest sow, with the fruit of thy vineyard. 10 Thou shalt not plough with an ox and an ass together. 11 Thou shalt not wear a mingled [garment], woollen and linen together. 12 Thou shalt make fringes on the four borders of thy garments, with which soever thou mayest be clothed. 13 And if any one should take a wife, and dwell with her, and hate her, 14 and attach to her reproachful words, and bring against her an evil name, and say, I took this woman, and when I came to her I found not her tokens of virginity: 15 then the father and the mother of the damsel shall take and bring out the damsel's tokens of virginity to the elders of the city to the gate. 16 And the father of the damsel shall say to the elders, I gave this my daughter to this man for a wife; 17 and now he has hated her, and attaches reproachful words to her, saying, I have not found tokens of virginity with thy daughter; and these [are] the tokens of my daughter's virginity. And they shall unfold the garment before the elders of the city. 18 And the elders of that city shall take that man, and shall chastise him, 19 and shall fine him a hundred shekels, and shall give [them] to the father of the damsel, because he has brought forth an evil name against a virgin of Israel; and she shall be his wife: he shall never be able to put her away. 20 But if this report be true, and the tokens of virginity be not found for the damsel; 21 then shall they bring out the damsel to the doors of her father's house, and shall stone her with stones, and she shall die; because she has wrought folly among the children of Israel, to defile the house of her father by whoring: so thou shalt remove the evil one from among you. 22 And if a man be found lying with a woman married to a man, ye shall kill them both, the man that lay with the woman, and the woman: so shalt thou remove the wicked one out of Israel. 23 And if there be a young damsel espoused to a man, and a man should have found her in the city and have lain with her; 24 ye shall bring them both out to the gate of their city, and they shall be stoned with stones, and they shall die; the damsel, because she cried not in the city; and the man, because he humbled his neighbour's spouse: so shalt thou remove the evil one from yourselves. 25 But if a man find in the field a damsel that is betrothed, and he should force her and lie with her, ye shall slay the man that lay with her only. 26 And the damsel has not [committed] a sin worthy of death; as if a man should rise up against his neighbour, and slay him, so [is] this thing; 27 because he found her in the field; the betrothed damsel cried, and there was none to help her. 28 And if any one should find a young virgin who has not been betrothed, and should force [her] and lie with her, and be found, 29 the man who lay with her shall give to the father of the damsel fifty silver didrachms, and she shall be his wife, because he has humbled her; he shall never be able to put her away.

Mark 15

1 Immediately in the morning the chief priests, with the elders, scribes, and the whole council, held a consultation, bound Jesus, carried him away, and delivered him up to Pilate. 2 Pilate asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” He answered, “So you say.” 3 The chief priests accused him of many things. 4 Pilate again asked him, “Have you no answer? See how many things they testify against you!” 5 But Jesus made no further answer, so that Pilate marveled. 6 Now at the feast he used to release to them one prisoner, whomever they asked of him. 7 There was one called Barabbas, bound with his fellow insurgents, men who in the insurrection had committed murder. 8 The multitude, crying aloud, began to ask him to do as he always did for them. 9 Pilate answered them, saying, “Do you want me to release to you the King of the Jews?” 10 For he perceived that for envy the chief priests had delivered him up. 11 But the chief priests stirred up the multitude, that he should release Barabbas to them instead. 12 Pilate again asked them, “What then should I do to him whom you call the King of the Jews?” 13 They cried out again, “Crucify him!” 14 Pilate said to them, “Why, what evil has he done?” But they cried out exceedingly, “Crucify him!” 15 Pilate, wishing to please the multitude, released Barabbas to them, and handed over Jesus, when he had flogged him, to be crucified. 16 The soldiers led him away within the court, which is the Praetorium; and they called together the whole cohort. 17 They clothed him with purple; and weaving a crown of thorns, they put it on him. 18 They began to salute him, “Hail, King of the Jews!” 19 They struck his head with a reed and spat on him, and bowing their knees, did homage to him. 20 When they had mocked him, they took the purple cloak off him, and put his own garments on him. They led him out to crucify him. 21 They compelled one passing by, coming from the country, Simon of Cyrene, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to go with them that he might bear his cross. 22 They brought him to the place called Golgotha, which is, being interpreted, “The place of a skull.” 23 They offered him wine mixed with myrrh to drink, but he didn’t take it. 24 Crucifying him, they parted his garments among them, casting lots on them, what each should take. 25 It was the third hour when they crucified him. 26 The superscription of his accusation was written over him: “THE KING OF THE JEWS.” 27 With him they crucified two robbers, one on his right hand, and one on his left. 28 The Scripture was fulfilled which says, “He was counted with transgressors.” 29 Those who passed by blasphemed him, wagging their heads and saying, “Ha! You who destroy the temple and build it in three days, 30 save yourself, and come down from the cross!” 31 Likewise, also the chief priests mocking among themselves with the scribes said, “He saved others. He can’t save himself. 32 Let the Christ, the King of Israel, now come down from the cross, that we may see and believe him.” Those who were crucified with him also insulted him. 33 When the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. 34 At the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” which is, being interpreted, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” 35 Some of those who stood by, when they heard it, said, “Behold, he is calling Elijah.” 36 One ran, and filling a sponge full of vinegar, put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink, saying, “Let him be. Let’s see whether Elijah comes to take him down.” 37 Jesus cried out with a loud voice, and gave up the spirit. 38 The veil of the temple was torn in two from the top to the bottom. 39 When the centurion, who stood by opposite him, saw that he cried out like this and breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!” 40 There were also women watching from afar, among whom were both Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James the less and of Joses, and Salome; 41 who, when he was in Galilee, followed him and served him; and many other women who came up with him to Jerusalem. 42 When evening had now come, because it was the Preparation Day, that is, the day before the Sabbath, 43 Joseph of Arimathaea, a prominent council member who also himself was looking for God’s Kingdom, came. He boldly went in to Pilate, and asked for Jesus’ body. 44 Pilate was surprised to hear that he was already dead; and summoning the centurion, he asked him whether he had been dead long. 45 When he found out from the centurion, he granted the body to Joseph. 46 He bought a linen cloth, and taking him down, wound him in the linen cloth and laid him in a tomb which had been cut out of a rock. He rolled a stone against the door of the tomb. 47 Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses, saw where he was laid.