Day 76 The Bible in a Year (Orthodox canon)

Judges 13

1 And the children of Israel yet again committed iniquity before the Lord; and the Lord delivered them into the hand of the Phylistines forty years. 2 And there was a man of Saraa, of the family of the kindred of Dan, and his name was Manoë, and his wife was barren, and bore not. 3 And an angel of the Lord appeared to the woman, and said to her, Behold, thou art barren and hast not born; yet thou shalt conceive a son. 4 And now be very cautious, and drink no wine nor strong drink, and eat no unclean thing; 5 for behold, thou art with child, and shalt bring forth a son; and there shall come no razor upon his head, for the child shall be a Nazarite to God from the womb; and he shall begin to save Israel from the hand of the Phylistines. 6 And the woman went in, and spoke to her husband, saying, A man of God came to me, and his appearance [was as] of an angel of God, very dreadful; and I did not ask him whence he was, and he did not tell me his name. 7 And he said to me, Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bring forth a son; and now drink no wine nor strong drink, and eat no unclean thing; for the child shall be holy to God from the womb until the day of his death. 8 And Manoë prayed to the Lord and said, I pray thee, O Lord my Lord, [concerning] the man of God whom thou sentest; let him now come to us once more, and teach us what we shall do to the child about to be born. 9 And the Lord heard the voice of Manoë, and the angel of God came yet again to the woman; and she sat in the field, and Manoë her husband was not with her. 10 And the woman hasted, and ran, and brought word to her husband, and said to him, Behold the man who came in [the other] day to me has appeared to me. 11 And Manoë arose and followed his wife, and came to the man, and said to him, Art thou the man that spoke to the woman? and the angel said, I [am]. 12 And Manoë said, Now shall [thy] word come to pass: what shall be the ordering of the child, and our dealings with him? 13 And the angel of the Lord said to Manoë, Of all things concerning which I spoke to the woman, she shall beware. 14 She shall eat of nothing that comes of the vine yielding wine, and let her not drink wine or strong liquor, and let her not eat anything unclean: all things that I have charged her she shall observe. 15 And Manoë said to the angel of the Lord, Let us detain thee here, and prepare before thee a kid of the goats. 16 And the angel of the Lord said to Manoë, If thou shouldest detain me, I will not eat of thy bread; and if thou wouldest offer a whole-burnt-offering, to the Lord thou shalt offer it: for Manoë knew not that he [was] an angel of the Lord. 17 And Manoë said to the angel of the Lord, What [is] thy name, that [when] thy word shall come to pass, we may glorify thee? 18 And the angel of the Lord said to him, Why dost thou thus ask after my name; whereas it is wonderful? 19 And Manoë took a kid of the goats and its meat-offering, and offered it on the rock to the Lord; and [the angel] wrought a distinct work, and Manoë and his wife were looking on. 20 And it came to pass when the flame went up above the altar toward heaven, that the angel of the Lord went up in the flame; and Manoë and his wife were looking, and they fell upon their face to the earth. 21 And the angel appeared no more to Manoë and to his wife: then Manoë knew that this [was] an angel of the Lord. 22 And Manoë said to his wife, We shall surely die, because we have seen God. 23 But his wife said to him, If the Lord were pleased to slay us, he would not have received of our hand a whole-burnt-offering and a meat-offering; and he would not have shewn us all these things, neither would he have caused us to hear all these things as at this time. 24 And the woman brought forth a son, and she called his name Sampson; and the child grew, and the Lord blessed him. 25 And the Spirit of the Lord began to go out with him in the camp of Dan, and between Saraa and Esthaol.

Judges 14

1 And Sampson went down to Thamnatha, and saw a woman in Thamnatha of the daughters of the Philistines. 2 And he went up and told his father and his mother, and said, I have seen a woman in Thamnatha of the daughters of the Phylistines; and now take her to me for a wife. 3 And his father and his mother said to him, Are there no daughters of thy brethren, and [is there not] a woman of all my people, that thou goest to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines? And Sampson said to his father, Take her for me, for she [is] right in my eyes. 4 And his father and his mother knew not that it was of the Lord, that he sought to be revenged on the Philistines: and at that time the Philistines lorded it over Israel. 5 And Sampson and his father and his mother went down to Thamnatha, and he came to the vineyard of Thamnatha; and behold, a young lion roared in meeting him. 6 And the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon him, and he crushed him as he would have crushed a kid of the goats, and there was nothing in his hands: and he told not his father and his mother what he had done. 7 And they went down and spoke to the woman, and she was pleasing in the eyes of Sampson. 8 And after some time he returned to take her, and he turned aside to see the carcase of the lion; and behold, a swarm of bees, and honey [were] in the mouth of the lion. 9 And he took it into his hands, and went on eating, and he went to his father and his mother, and gave to them, and they did eat; but he told them not that he took the honey out of the mouth of the lion. 10 And his father went down to the woman, and Sampson made there a banquet for seven days, for so the young men are used to do. 11 And it came to pass when they saw him, that they took thirty guests, and they were with him. 12 And Sampson said to them, I propound you a riddle: if ye will indeed tell it me, and discover it within the seven days of the feast, I will give you thirty sheets and thirty changes of raiment. 13 And if ye cannot tell it me, ye shall give me thirty napkins and thirty changes of apparel: and they said to him, Propound thy riddle, and we will hear it. 14 And he said to them, Meat came forth of the eater, and sweetness out of the strong: and they could not tell the riddle for three days. 15 And it came to pass on the fourth day, that they said to the wife of Sampson, Deceive now thy husband, and let him tell thee the riddle, lest we burn thee and thy father's house with fire: did ye invite us to do us violence? 16 And Sampson's wife wept before him, and said, Thou dost but hate me, and lovest me not; for the riddle which thou hast propounded to the children of my people, thou hast not told me: and Sampson said to her, If I have not told it to my father and my mother, shall I tell it to thee? 17 And she wept before him the seven days, during which their banquet lasted: and it came to pass on the seventh day, that he told her, because she troubled him; and she told it to the children of her people. 18 And the men of the city said to him on the seventh day, before sunrise, What [is] sweeter than honey? and what [is] stronger than a lion? and Sampson said to them, If ye had not ploughed with my heifer, ye would not have known my riddle. 19 And the Spirit of the Lord came upon him powerfully, and he went down to Ascalon, and destroyed of the inhabitants thirty men, and took their garments, and gave the changes of raiment to them that told the riddle; and Sampson was very angry, and went up to the house of his father. 20 And the wife of Sampson was [given] to one of his friends, with whom he was on terms of friendship.

Judges 15

1 And it came to pass after a time, in the days of wheat harvest, that Sampson visited his wife with a kid, and said, I will go in to my wife even into the chamber: but her father did not suffer him to go in. 2 And her father spoke, saying, I said that thou didst surely hate her, and I gave her to one of thy friends: [is] not her younger sister better than she? let her be to thee instead of her. 3 And Sampson said to them, Even for once am I guiltless with regard to the Philistines, in that I do mischief among them. 4 And Sampson went and caught three hundred foxes, and took torches, and turned tail to tail, and put a torch between two tails, and fastened it. 5 And he set fire to the torches, and sent [the foxes] into the corn of the Philistines; and every thing was burnt from the threshing floor to the standing corn, and even to the vineyard and olives. 6 And the Philistines said, Who [has done] these things? and they said, Sampson the son-in-law of the Thamnite, because he has taken his wife, and given her to one of his friends; and the Philistines went up, and burnt her and her father's house with fire. 7 And Sampson said to them, Though ye may have dealt thus with her, verily I will be avenged of you, and afterwards I will cease. 8 And he smote them leg on thigh [with] a great overthrow; and went down and dwelt in a cave of the rock Etam. 9 And the Philistines went up, and encamped in Juda, and spread themselves abroad in Lechi. 10 And the men of Juda said, Why are ye come up against us? and the Philistines said, We are come up to bind Sampson, and to do to him as he has done to us. 11 And the three thousand men of Juda went down to the hole of the rock Etam, and they said to Sampson, Knowest thou not that the Philistines rule over us? and what [is] this [that] thou hast done to us? and Sampson said to them, As they did to me, so have I done to them. 12 And they said to him, We are come down to bind thee to deliver thee into the hand of the Philistines: and Sampson said to them, Swear to me that ye will not fall upon me yourselves. 13 And they spoke to him, saying, Nay, but we will only bind thee fast, and deliver thee into their hand, and will by no means slay thee: and they bound him with two new ropes, and brought him from that rock. 14 And they came to Lechi: and the Philistines shouted, and ran to meet him: and the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and the ropes that were upon his arms became as tow which is burnt with fire; and his bonds were consumed from off his hands. 15 And he found the jaw-bone of an ass that had been cast away, and he put forth his hand and took it, and smote with it a thousand men. 16 And Sampson said, With the jaw-bone of an ass I have utterly destroyed them, for with the jaw-bone of an ass I have smitten a thousand men. 17 And it came to pass when he ceased speaking, that he cast the jaw-bone out of his hand; and he called that place the Lifting of the jaw-bone. 18 And he was very thirsty, and wept before the Lord, and said, Thou hast been well pleased to grant this great deliverance by the hand of thy servant, and now shall I die for thirst, and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised? 19 And God broke open a hollow place in the jaw, and there came thence water, and he drank; and his spirit returned and he revived: therefore the name of the fountain was called ‘The well of the invoker,’ which is in Lechi, until this day. 20 And he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years.

Luke 11

1 When he finished praying in a certain place, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John also taught his disciples.” 2 He said to them, “When you pray, say, ‘Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy. May your Kingdom come. May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. 3 Give us day by day our daily bread. 4 Forgive us our sins, for we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. Bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’” 5 He said to them, “Which of you, if you go to a friend at midnight and tell him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, 6 for a friend of mine has come to me from a journey, and I have nothing to set before him,’ 7 and he from within will answer and say, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I can’t get up and give it to you’? 8 I tell you, although he will not rise and give it to him because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence, he will get up and give him as many as he needs. 9 “I tell you, keep asking, and it will be given you. Keep seeking, and you will find. Keep knocking, and it will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives. He who seeks finds. To him who knocks it will be opened. 11 “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, he won’t give him a snake instead of a fish, will he? 12 Or if he asks for an egg, he won’t give him a scorpion, will he? 13 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?” 14 He was casting out a demon, and it was mute. When the demon had gone out, the mute man spoke; and the multitudes marveled. 15 But some of them said, “He casts out demons by Beelzebul, the prince of the demons.” 16 Others, testing him, sought from him a sign from heaven. 17 But he, knowing their thoughts, said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation. A house divided against itself falls. 18 If Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? For you say that I cast out demons by Beelzebul. 19 But if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your children cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges. 20 But if I by God’s finger cast out demons, then God’s Kingdom has come to you. 21 “When the strong man, fully armed, guards his own dwelling, his goods are safe. 22 But when someone stronger attacks him and overcomes him, he takes from him his whole armor in which he trusted, and divides his plunder. 23 “He who is not with me is against me. He who doesn’t gather with me scatters. 24 The unclean spirit, when he has gone out of the man, passes through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he says, ‘I will turn back to my house from which I came out.’ 25 When he returns, he finds it swept and put in order. 26 Then he goes and takes seven other spirits more evil than himself, and they enter in and dwell there. The last state of that man becomes worse than the first.” 27 It came to pass, as he said these things, a certain woman out of the multitude lifted up her voice and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts which nursed you!” 28 But he said, “On the contrary, blessed are those who hear the word of God, and keep it.” 29 When the multitudes were gathering together to him, he began to say, “This is an evil generation. It seeks after a sign. No sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet. 30 For even as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so the Son of Man will also be to this generation. 31 The Queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation and will condemn them, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and behold, one greater than Solomon is here. 32 The men of Nineveh will stand up in the judgment with this generation, and will condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, one greater than Jonah is here. 33 “No one, when he has lit a lamp, puts it in a cellar or under a basket, but on a stand, that those who come in may see the light. 34 The lamp of the body is the eye. Therefore when your eye is good, your whole body is also full of light; but when it is evil, your body also is full of darkness. 35 Therefore see whether the light that is in you isn’t darkness. 36 If therefore your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly full of light, as when the lamp with its bright shining gives you light.” 37 Now as he spoke, a certain Pharisee asked him to dine with him. He went in and sat at the table. 38 When the Pharisee saw it, he marveled that he had not first washed himself before dinner. 39 The Lord said to him, “Now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the platter, but your inward part is full of extortion and wickedness. 40 You foolish ones, didn’t he who made the outside make the inside also? 41 But give for gifts to the needy those things which are within, and behold, all things will be clean to you. 42 But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and every herb, but you bypass justice and God’s love. You ought to have done these, and not to have left the other undone. 43 Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the best seats in the synagogues and the greetings in the marketplaces. 44 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like hidden graves, and the men who walk over them don’t know it.” 45 One of the lawyers answered him, “Teacher, in saying this you insult us also.” 46 He said, “Woe to you lawyers also! For you load men with burdens that are difficult to carry, and you yourselves won’t even lift one finger to help carry those burdens. 47 Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets, and your fathers killed them. 48 So you testify and consent to the works of your fathers. For they killed them, and you build their tombs. 49 Therefore also the wisdom of God said, ‘I will send to them prophets and apostles; and some of them they will kill and persecute, 50 that the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation, 51 from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zachariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary.’ Yes, I tell you, it will be required of this generation. 52 Woe to you lawyers! For you took away the key of knowledge. You didn’t enter in yourselves, and those who were entering in, you hindered.” 53 As he said these things to them, the scribes and the Pharisees began to be terribly angry, and to draw many things out of him, 54 lying in wait for him, and seeking to catch him in something he might say, that they might accuse him.