Occurring Scripture for the Hour of Matins
Second Week of September
Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday SaturdayLesson i
From the Book of Job
Job 9:1-5And Job answered, and said: "Indeed I know it is so, and that man cannot be justified compared with God. If he will contend with Him, he cannot answer Him one for a thousand. He is wise in heart, and mighty in strength: who has resisted Him, and has had peace? Who has removed mountains, and they whom He overthrew in His wrath, knew it not. "
Lesson ii
Job 9:6-12"Who shakes the earth out of her place, and her pillars tremble. Who commands the sun and it rises not: and shuts up the stars as it were under a seal: Who alone spreads out the heavens, and walks upon the waves of the sea. Who made Arcturus, and Orion, and Hyades, and the inner parts of the south. Who does things great, and incomprehensible, and wonderful, of which there are no number. If He comes to me, I shall not see Him: if He departs I shall not understand. If He examines unexpectedly, who shall answer him? or who can say: Why do You do what You do?"
Lesson iii
Job 9:13-17"God, Whose wrath no man can resist, and under Whom they stoop that bears up the world. What am I then, that I should answer Him, and have words with Him? I, who although I should have any just thing, would not answer, but would make supplication to my Judge. And if He should hear me when I call, I would not believe that He had heard my voice. For He shall crush me in a whirlwind, and multiply my wounds even without cause."
Lesson iv
From the Morals on the Book of Job of Pope Saint Gregory the Great
Book ix, chapter 2We know that it is completely true that a man cannot be justified as against God. When God is put out of the consideration, a man may be considered to be just, but considered as against God, his righteousness vanishes. When a man measures himself by his relation to Him, Who is the Author of all good, he thereby acknowledges that he has no good in himself, but has received from God all that he has. He that glorifies himself because of good which has been given him, fights against God with God's own gifts. It is just therefore that the grounds upon which he ought to be humbled, but upon which he has puffed himself up, should be used to humble his vain-glory. But a holy man, because he perceives that the worth of our own good deeds falls short, when he considers his own spiritual man, justly says If He will contend with him, he cannot answer Him one of a thousand.
Lesson v
In the Holy Scriptures the numeral one thousand is used to be taken as signifying a generalization. Thus, the Psalmist said: "The word which He commanded to a thousand generations" (Psalm 104:8), whereas it is notorious that the Evangelist does not reckon more then seventy-and-seven generations between the very beginning of the world and the coming of our Redeemer. What therefore is to be understood here by a thousand? The general ripeness of the old generation to bring forth a new offspring. Hence it is also said by John: "And shall reign with Him a thousand years" (Apocalypse 20:6), because the reign of the Holy Church over all mankind will be made perfect.
Lesson vi
When times one is ten, and ten times ten is an hundred, and ten times an hundred is a thousand. Observing therefore this connection between one and a thousand, what are we to understand by the one (in the text, connected as it is with the thousand whereby we understand perfection)? Is it not the beginning of a good life, even as the thousand represents perfection? The contending with God (which is spoken of in the text) is the non-acknowledgment of that which is owed to Him, and the vain-glorying instead in our own strength. But a holy man should see, that even if one had received the gifts of perfection, and were to make them the grounds of self-glorifying, such an one thereby would lose all that he had received.
Lesson i
From the Book of Job
Job 27:1-5Job also added, taking up his parable, and said: "As God lives, Who hath taken away my judgment, and the Almighty, Who has brought my soul to bitterness, as long as breath remains in me, and the spirit of God in my nostrils, my lips shall not speak iniquity, neither shall my tongue contrive lying. God forbid that I should judge You to be just: till I die I will not depart from my innocence. "
Lesson ii
Job 27:6-10My justice I hold, and I will not forsake it: for my heart does not reproach me for any day in all my life. Let my enemy be as the ungodly, and my adversary as the wicked one. For what is the hope of the hypocrite if through covetousness he robs, and God delivers not his soul? Will God hear his cry, when distress shall come upon him? Or can he delight himself in the Almighty, and call upon God at all times?"
Lesson iii
Job 27:11-15"I will teach you by the hand of God, what the Almighty has, and I will not conceal it. Behold you all know it—why do you speak vain things without cause? This is the portion of a wicked man with God, and the inheritance of the violent, which they shall receive of the Almighty. If his sons be multiplied, they shall be for the sword, and his grandsons shall not be filled with bread. His survivors shall be buried in death, and his widows shall not weep. "
Lesson i
From the Book of Job
Job 28:12-16"But where is wisdom to be found, and where is the place of understanding? Man knows not the its price nor is it found in the land of those who live in delights. The abyss said: 'It is not in me': and the sea said: 'It is not with me.' The finest gold shall not purchase it, neither shall silver be weighed in exchange for it. It shall not be compared with the dyed colors of India, or with the most precious sardonyx, or the sapphire. "
Lesson ii
Job 28:17-22"Gold or crystal cannot equal it, nor shall any vessels of gold be exchanged for it. High and eminent things shall not be mentioned in comparison of it: but wisdom is drawn out of secret places. The topaz of Ethiopia shall not be equal to it, neither shall it be compared to the brightest dyeing. Whence then cometh wisdom? and where is the place of understanding? It is hid from the eyes of all the living. and the fowls of the air know it not. Destruction and death have said: With our ears we have heard the rumor of it.'"
Lesson iii
Job 28:23-28"God understands its way of it, and He knows its place. For He beholds the ends of the world: and looks on all things that are under heaven. Who made a weight for the winds and weighed the waters by measure. When he gave a law for the rain, and a path for the sounding storms. Then He saw it, and declared, and prepared, and searched it. And He said to man: 'Behold the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom: and to depart from evil, is understanding.'"
Lesson i
From the Book of Job
Job 31:1-6"I made a covenant with my eyes, that I would not so much as think about a virgin. For what part should God above have in me, and what inheritance has the Almighty from on high? Is not destruction for the wicked, and aversion for those who work iniquity? Does He not consider my ways, and number all my steps? If I have walked in vanity, and my foot has made haste to deceit: Let him weigh me in a just balance, and let God know my simplicity. "
Lesson ii
Job 31:7-12"If my step has turned out of the way, and if my heart has followed my eyes, and if a spot has cleaved to my hands: Then let me sow and let another eat: and let my offspring be rooted out. If my heart has been deceived by a woman, and if I have laid wait at my friend's door: Let my wife be the harlot of another, and let other men lie with her. For this is a heinous crime, and a most grievous iniquity. It is a fire that devours even to destruction, and roots up all things that spring.
Lesson iii
Job 31:13-18"If I have failed to observe justice with my manservant, or my maidservant, when they had any controversy against me: For what shall I do when God rises to judge me? and when he shall examine me, what shall I answer him? Did not He that made me in the womb make him also: and did not the One and the Same form me in the womb? If I have denied to the poor what they desired, and have made the eyes of the widow wait: If I have eaten my morsel alone, and the fatherless receives no share: For from my infancy mercy grew up with me: and it came out with me from my mother's womb:"
Lesson i
From the Book of Job
Job 38:1-7Then the Lord answered Job out of a whirlwind, and said: "Who is this that obscures divine plans with ignorant words? Gird up your loins like a man: I will ask you, and you will answer Me. Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? tell Me if you have understanding. Who determined its size, if you know? or who stretched the measuring line upon it?" Upon what are its bases grounded? or who laid its corner stone, when the morning stars praised Me together, and all the sons of God made a joyful melody?"
Lesson ii
Job 38:8-13"Who shut up the sea within its doors, when it broke forth as issuing out of the womb: When I made a cloud the garment thereof, and wrapped it in a mist as in swaddling bands? I set my bounds around it, and made it bars and doors: And I said: Thus far you shall come, and shall go no further, and here you shall break your swelling waves. Since your birth, did you command the morning, and show the day where to dawn? And have you held the ends of the earth, shaking them—have you shaken the ungodly out of it?
Lesson iii
Job 38:14-20The earth is changed as is clay changed by the seal, and is dyed as is a garment: the light shall be taken away from the wicked , and the proud arm shall be broken. Have you entered into the depths of the sea, and walked in the lowest parts of the deep? Have the gates of death been opened to you, and have you seen the doors of darkness? Have you considered the breadth of the earth? tell me, if you know all things? Where is the way to the dwelling of the light, and where is the place of darkness: that you may bring every thing to its own bounds, and understand the paths to their house.
Lesson i
From the Book of Job
Job 40:1-5And the Lord answering Job out of the whirlwind, said: "Gird up your loins like a man: I will ask you, and you will tell me. Wilt you make void my judgment: and condemn me, that you may be justified? And have you an arm like God, and can you thunder with a voice like him? Clothe yourself with beauty, and set thyself up on high and be glorious, and put on goodly garments?"
Lesson ii
Job 40:6-11"Scatter the proud in your indignation? And behold every arrogant man, and humble him? Look on all that are proud, and confound them, and crush the wicked in their place? Hide them in the dust together, and plunge their faces into the pit? Then I will confess that your right hand is able to save you. Behold the behemoth whom I made with you, he eats grass like an ox. His strength is in his loins, and his force in the navel of his belly."
Lesson iii
Job 42:1-6Then Job answered the Lord, and said: "I know that You can do all things, and no thought is hid from You. Who is it that hides counsel without knowledge? Therefore I have spoken unwisely, and things that above measure exceeded my knowledge. Hear, and I will speak: I will ask You, and do You tell me. With the hearing of the ear, I have heard You, but now my eye sees You. Therefore I reproach myself, and do penance in dust and ashes."
Lesson i
From the Book of Job
Job 42:7-8And after the Lord had spoken these words to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Themanite: "My wrath is kindled against you, and against your two friends, because you have not spoken what is right before Me, as has My servant Job. Therefore, take seven oxen, and seven rams, and go to My servant Job, and offer for yourselves a holocaust: and my servant Job shall pray for you: his face I will accept, that folly be not imputed to you: for you have not spoken right things before me, as my servant Job has."
Lesson ii
Job 42:9-16So Eliphaz the Themanite, and Baldad the Suhite, and Sophar the Naamathite went, and did as the Lord had spoken to them, and the Lord accepted the face of Job. The Lord also was turned at the penance of Job, when he prayed for his friends. And the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before. And all his brethren came to him, and all his sisters, and all that knew him before, and they ate bread with him in his house: and bemoaned him, and comforted him upon all the evil that God had brought upon him. And every man gave him one ewe, and one earring of gold. And the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning. And he had fourteen thousand sheep, and six thousand camels, and a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand she asses. And he had seven sons, and three daughters. And he called the names of one Dies, and the name of the second Cassia, and the name of the third Cornustibil. And there were not found in all the earth women so beautiful as the daughters of Job: and their father gave them inheritance among their brethren. And Job lived after these things, a hundred and forty years, and he saw his children, and his children's children, unto the fourth generation, and he died an old man, and full of days.
Lesson iii
From the feast of the day or from the Saturday Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary
