Occurring Scripture for the Hour of Matins
Fifth Week of November
Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday SaturdayLesson i
Here begins the Book of the Prophet Micheas
Micheas 1:1-3The word of the Lord that came to Micheas the Morasthite, in the days of Joathan, Achaz, and Ezechias, kings of Juda: which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem. "Hear, all ye people: and let the earth give ear, and all that is in it: and let the Lord God be a witness to you, the Lord from His holy temple. For behold the Lord will come forth out of his place: and he will come down, and will tread upon the high places of the earth."
Lesson ii
Micheas 1:4-6"And the mountains shall be melted under Him: and the valleys shall be cleft, as wax before the fire, and as waters that run down a steep place. For the wickedness of Jacob is all this, and for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the wickedness of Jacob? is it not Samaria? and what are the high places of Juda? are they not Jerusalem? And I will make Samaria as a heap of stones in the field when a vineyard is planted: and I will bring down the stones into the valley, and will lay her foundations bare."
Lesson iii
Micheas 1:7-9"And all her graven things shall be cut in pieces, and all her wages shall be burnt with fire, and I will bring to destruction all her idols: for they were gathered together of the hire of a harlot, and unto the hire of a harlot they shall return. Therefore will I lament and howl: I will go stripped and naked: I will make a wailing like the dragons, and a mourning like the ostriches. Because her wound is desperate, because it has come even to Juda, it has touched the gate of My people even to Jerusalem."
Lesson iv
From the Sermon of Saint Basil the Great
On Psalm Thirty-threeWhenever the desire to sin comes over you, I wish that you would think of the awful and overwhelming judgment-seat of Christ. There the Judge shall sit upon a throne high and lifted up. Every creature shall stand before Him, quaking because of the glory of His presence. There are we to be led up, one by one, to give account for those things which we have done in life. Presently there will be found, by the sides of those who have in life wrought much evil, dreadful and hideous angels with faces of fire, and burning breath, appointed thereto, and showing their evil will, in appearance like the night, in their despair and hatred of mankind.
Lesson v
Think again of the bottomless pit, the impenetrable darkness, the burning fire that gives no light, the poisonous mass of worms, preying upon the flesh, ever feeding, and never filled, causing by their gnawing unbearable agony, lastly, the greatest punishment of all, shame and confusion for ever. Have a dread of these things, and let that dread correct you, and be as a curb to your mind to hold it in from the hankering after sin.
Lesson vi
This fear of the Lord the Prophet has promised to teach. But he has not promised to teach it to all, but only to such as will hear him not to such as have fallen far away, but to such as run to him, hungry for salvation, not to such as have no part in the promises, but to such as by baptism are born children of adoption, set at peace and oneness with the Word. "Come, ye children," says he, that is to say, "Draw near to me by good works, all ye who by the new birth have become the worthy children of light, hearken to me, all ye who have the ears of your heart opened, I will teach you the fear of the Lord, even the fear of that Being of Whom we have just been speaking.
Lesson i
Here begins the Book of the Prophet Nahum
Nahum 1:1-4The burden of Ninive. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elcesite. The Lord is a jealous God, and an avenger: the Lord is an avenger, and angry: the Lord takes vengeance on His adversaries, and He is angry with his enemies. The Lord is patient, yet great in power, and will not cleanse and acquit the guilty. The Lord's ways are in a tempest, and a whirlwind, and clouds are the dust of his feet. He rebukes the sea, and dries it up: and brings all the rivers to be a desert.
Lesson ii
Nahum 1:4-6Basan languishes and Carmel: and the flower of Lebanon fades away. The mountains tremble at Him, and the hills are made desolate: and the earth quakes at His presence, and the world, and all that dwell therein. Who can stand before the face of His indignation? and who shall resist in the fierceness of His anger? His indignation is poured out like fire: and the rocks are melted by Him.
Lesson iii
Nahum 1:7-10The Lord is good and gives strength in the day of trouble: and knows those who hope in Him. But with a flood that passes by, He will make an utter end of the place thereof: and darkness shall pursue His enemies. What do you devise against the Lord? He will make an utter end: the enemy shall not rise a second time. For as thorns embrace one another: so while they are feasting and drinking together, they shall be consumed as stubble that is fully dry.
Lesson i
Here begins the Book of the Prophet Habacuc
Habacuc 1:1-4The burden that Habacuc the prophet saw. How long, O Lord, shall I cry, and Thou will not hear? shall I cry out to Thee suffering violence, and Thou wilt not save me? Why have Thou shown me iniquity and grievance, to see plunder and injustice before me? and there is a judgment, but opposition is more powerful. Therefore the law is torn in pieces, and judgment comes not to the end: because the wicked prevail against the just, therefore wrong judgment goes forth.
Lesson ii
Habacuc 1:5-7Behold ye among the nations, and see: wonder, and be astonished: for a work is done in your days, which no man will believe when it is told. For behold, I will raise up the Chaldeans, a bitter and swift nation, marching upon the breadth of the earth, to possess the dwelling places that are not their own. They are dreadful, and terrible: from themselves shall their judgment, and their burden proceed.
Lesson iii
Habacuc1:8-10Their horses are lighter than leopards, and swifter than evening wolves; and their horsemen shall be spread abroad: for their horsemen shall come from afar, they shall fly as an eagle that makes haste to eat. They shall all come to the prey, their face is like a burning wind: and they shall gather together captives as the sand. And their prince shall triumph over kings, and princes shall be his laughingstock: and he shall laugh at every strong hold, and shall cast up a mount, and shall take it.
Lesson i
Here begins the Book of the Prophet Sophonias
Sophonias 1:1-3The word of the Lord that came to Sophonias the son of Chusi, the son of Godolias, the son of Amarias, the son of Ezechias, in the days of Josias the son of Amon king of Juda. "Gathering, I will gather together all things from off the face of the land," says the Lord: "I will gather man, and beast, I will gather the birds of the air, and the fishes of the sea: and the ungodly shall meet with ruin: and I will destroy men from off the face of the land," says the Lord.
Lesson ii
Sophonias 1:4-6"And I will stretch out my hand upon Juda, and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem: and I will destroy the remnant of Baal ["god" of the Canaanites], and the names of the wardens of the temples with the priests: And those who worship the host of heaven upon the tops of houses, and them that adore, and swear by the Lord, and swear by Melchom [The idol of the Ammonites]. And them that turn away from following after the Lord, and that have not sought the Lord, nor searched after Him."
Lesson iii
Sophonias 1:7-9"Be silent before the face of the Lord God: for the day of the Lord is near, for the Lord has prepared a victim, he has sanctified his guests. And it shall come to pass in the day of the victim of the Lord, that I will visit upon the princes, and upon the king's sons, and upon all such as are clothed with strange apparel. And I will visit in that day upon every one that enters arrogantly over the threshold: them that fill the house of the Lord their God with iniquity and deceit."
Lesson i
Here begins the Book of the Prophet Aggeus
Aggeus 1:1-2In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, in the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the hand of Aggeus the prophet, to Zorobabel the son of Salathiel, governor of Juda, and to Jesus the son of Josedec the high priest, saying: "Thus says the Lord of hosts," saying: "This people says: 'The time is not yet come for building the house of the Lord.'"
Lesson ii
Aggeus 1:3-6And the word of the Lord came by the hand of Aggeus the prophet, saying: "Is it time for you to dwell in ceiled houses, and this House to lie desolate? And now thus says the Lord of hosts: Set your hearts to consider your ways. You have sowed much, and brought in little: you have eaten, but have not had enough: you have drunk, but have not been filled with drink: you have clothed yourselves, but have not been warmed: and he that has earned wages, put them into a bag with holes.
Lesson iii
Aggeus 1:7-11Thus says the Lord of hosts: "Set Your hearts upon your ways: Go up to the mountain, bring timber, and build the house: and it shall be acceptable to Me, and I shall be glorified, says the Lord. "You have looked for more, and behold it became less, and you brought it home, and I blew it away: why?" says the Lord of hosts, "because my house is desolate, and you make haste every man to his own house. Therefore the heavens over you were stayed from giving dew, and the earth was hindered from yielding her fruits: And I called for a drought upon the land, and upon the mountains, and upon the corn, and upon the wine, and upon the oil, and upon all that the ground brings forth, and upon men, and upon beasts, and upon all the labor of the hands.
Lesson i
Here begins the Book of the Prophet Zacharias
Zacharias 1:1-3In the eighth month, in the second year of king Darius, the word of the Lord came to Zacharias the son of Barachias, the son of Addo, the prophet, saying: "The Lord has been exceedingly angry with your fathers. And you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord of hosts: Turn ye to Me, says the Lord of hosts: and I will turn to you, says the Lord of hosts."
Lesson ii
Zacharias 1:4-5"Be not as your fathers, to whom the former prophets have cried, saying: 'Thus says the Lord of hosts: Turn ye from your evil ways, and from your wicked thoughts: but they did not give ear, neither did they hearken to me, says the Lord. [5] Your fathers, where are they? and the prophets, shall they live always?'"
Lesson iii
Zacharias 1:6"But yet my words, and my ordinances, which I gave in charge to my servants the prophets, did they not take hold of your fathers, and they returned, and said: As the Lord of hosts thought to do to us according to our ways, and according to our devices, so he has done to us.
Lesson i
Here begins the Book of the Prophet Malachias
Malachias 1:1-4The burden of the word of the Lord to Israel by the hand of Malachias. "I have loved you," said the Lord: "and you have said: 'Wherein have you loved us?' Was not Esau brother to Jacob," said the Lord, "and I have loved Jacob, But have hated Esau? and I have made his mountains a wilderness, and given his inheritance to the dragons of the desert." But if Edom shall say: "We are destroyed, but we will return and build up what hath been destroyed": thus saith the Lord of hosts: "They shall build up, and I will throw down: and they shall be called the borders of wickedness, and the people with whom the Lord is angry for ever."
Lesson ii
Malachias 1:5-7And your eyes shall see, and you shall say: "The Lord be magnified upon the border of Israel. The son honors the father, and the servant his master: if then I be a father, where is my honour? and if I be a master, where is my fear?" says the Lord of hosts. "To you, O priests, that despise My name, and have said: 'Wherein have we despised Thy name?' You offer polluted bread upon My altar, and you say: 'Wherein have we polluted Thee?' In that you say: The table of the Lord is contemptible."
Lesson iii
Malachias1:8-11"If you offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? and if you offer the lame and the sick, is it not evil? offer it to your prince, if he will be pleased with it, or if he will regard your face," says the Lord of hosts. "And now beseech ye the face of God, that He may have mercy on you, (for by your hand has this been done,) if by any means he will receive your faces," says the Lord of hosts. "Who is there among you, that will shut the doors, and will kindle the fire on My altar gratis? I have no pleasure in you," says the Lord of hosts: "and I will not receive a gift of your hand. For from the rising of the sun even to the going down, My name is great among the Gentiles, and in every place there is sacrifice, and there is offered to My name a clean oblation: for My name is great among the Gentiles," says the Lord of hosts.
In an Office of three lessons, ii and iii above are concatenated and the third is taken from the proper of saints
or the Saturday Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
