Hieromartyr Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna; Saint Gorgonia (372); Our Venerable Father Alexander the Unsleeping (430)

For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Juda his beloved plant: I expected it to bring forth judgment, and it brought forth iniquity; and not righteousness, but a cry. ⁸Woe to them that join house to house, and add field to field, that they may take away something of their neighbor's: will you⌃ dwell alone upon the land? ⁹For these things have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts: for though many houses should be built, many and fair houses shall be desolate, and there shall be no inhabitants in them. ¹⁰For where ten yoke of oxen plow the land shall yield one , and he that sows six homers shall produce three measures. ¹¹Woe to them that rise up in the morning, and follow strong drink; who wait at it till evening: for the wine shall inflame them. ¹²For they drink wine with harp, and lute, and drums, and pipes: but they regard not the works of the Lord, and consider not the works of his hands. ¹³Therefore my people have been taken captive, because they know not the Lord: and there has been a multitude of dead bodies, because of hunger and of thirst for water. ¹⁴Therefore hell has enlarged its desire and opened its mouth without ceasing: and her glorious and great, and her rich and her pestilent men shall go down into it. ¹⁵And the mean man shall be brought low, and the great man shall be disgraced, and the lofty eyes shall be brought low. ¹⁶But the Lord of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and the holy God shall be glorified in righteousness.

And Cain said to Abel his brother, Let us go out into the plain; and it came to pass that when they were in the plain Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and killed him. ⁹And the Lord God said to Cain, Where is Abel your brother? and he said, I know not, am I my brother's keeper? ¹⁰And the Lord said, What have you done? the voice of your brother's blood cries to me out of the ground. ¹¹And now you are cursed from the earth which has opened her mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. ¹²When you till the earth, then it shall not continue to give its strength to you: you shall be groaning and trembling on the earth. ¹³And Cain said to the Lord God, My crime is too great for me to be forgiven. ¹⁴If you cast me out this day from the face of the earth, and I shall be hidden from your presence, and I shall be groaning and trembling upon the earth, then it will be that any one that finds me shall kill me. ¹⁵And the Lord God said to him, Not so, any one that slays Cain shall suffer sevenfold vengeance; and the Lord God set a mark upon Cain that no one that found him might kill him.

My son, attend to my wisdom, and apply your ear to my words; ²that you may keep good understanding, and the discretion of my lips gives you a charge. Give no heed to a worthless woman; ³for honey drops from the lips of a harlot, who for a season pleases your palate: ⁴but afterwards you will find her more bitter than gall, and sharper than a two-edged sword. ⁵For the feet of folly lead those who deal with her down to the grave with death; and her steps are not established. ⁶For she goes not upon the paths of life; but her ways are slippery, and not easily known. ⁷Now then, my son, hear me, and make not my words of none effect. ⁸Remove your way far from her; draw not near to the doors of her house: ⁹lest you give away your life to others, and your substance to the merciless: ¹⁰lest strangers be filled with your strength, and your labors come into the houses of strangers; ¹¹And you repent at last, when the flesh of your body is consumed, ¹²and you shall say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart avoided reproofs! ¹³I heard not the voice of him that instructed me, and taught me, neither did I apply my ear. ¹⁴I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly. ¹⁵Drink waters out of your own vessels, and out of your own springing wells.

Thus says the Lord: Comfort, comfort my people, says God. Priests, speak to the heart of Jerusalem. Comfort her, because her humiliation has been completed; for her has sin has been abolished, because she has received from the Lord’s hand double for her sins. A voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight the paths of our God. Every valley will be filled and every mountain and hill made low; what is crooked will become straight, and the rough ways will be made smooth; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God. Go up onto a high mountain, you who bring good tidings to Sion; lift up your voice with strength, you who bring good tidings to Jerusalem. Lift it up, do not be afraid. I the Lord God, I, the God of Israel, will hearken and will not forsake them; but I will open rivers from the mountains and springs in the middle of plains. I will turn the wilderness into water meadows and the thirsty earth with water courses. Let the heavens rejoice from on high and let the clouds rain justice. Let the earth sprout and blossom with mercy and justice. Announce a voice of gladness to the end of the earth and let this be heard: Say that the Lord has delivered his servant Jacob. And if they thirst through deserts, he will bring water for them from a rock. Rejoice you barren who have never given birth, break out and shout, you who have never known birth pangs, for the children of the deserted are more than those of her who has a husband.

Thus says the Lord Almighty: See, I am sending my Angel, my messenger, before your face, who will prepare your way before you. And the Lord whom you seek will come to his temple. And who will endure the day of his entrance? And who will withstand at his appearing? Because he will enter like fire in a smelting furnace and like the lye of launderers. And he will come to you in judgement; and he will be a swift witness against the wicked and against adulteresses and against those swear falsely in his name and those who do not fear him, says the Lord Almighty. Because I am the Lord your God, and I have not changed and you, children of Jacob, have perverted the laws and not kept them. Therefore turn back to me and I will turn back to you, says the Lord Almighty. And all the nations will call you blessed and you will know that I am the Lord who discern between just and lawless on the day on which I make a peculiar possession of those who love me. Know then and remember the law of Moses my servant, as I gave him commandment on Horeb, to all Israel ordinances and judgements. And see, I will send you Elias the Thesbite, before the great and manifest day of the Lord comes; he will turn again the heart of father to son and of a man to his neighbour, lest when I come I smite the earth grievously, says the Lord Almighty, God the Holy One of Israel.

A just man if he comes to his end will be at rest. A just man who dies will condemn the ungodly who are alive; for they will see the end of a just man and will not understand what they counselled concerning him. For the Lord will break the ungodly, render them voiceless and cast them headlong, and he will shake them from the foundations and they will be utterly worsted in sorrow, and their memory shall perish. They shall come with fear at the accounting of their sins, and their iniquities will convict them to their face. Then the just will stand with much boldness in the face of those who afflicted him and made his toils of no account. When they see this they will be troubled with great fear and will be amazed at the wonder of his salvation. For they will say as they repent and with anguish they will groan and say: Is this he whom we fools once made a laughing stock and a byword of reproach? We reckoned his life folly and his end dishonour. How has he been numbered among the children of God and his lot with the Saints? Therefore we have erred from the way of truth and the light of righteousness has not shone on us and the sun has not dawned on us. We have been filled with paths of lawlessness and destruction and journeyed through trackless paths, but have not known the way of the Lord.