April 4, 2026

This is Daily Orthodox Scriptures with Father Alexis Corrie from St. Philip Orthodox Church in Davey Florida. Join us daily on the journey.

Welcome to the Daily Orthodox Scriptures. I'm Father Alexis and we are reading through the Scriptures each day of the year using the Orthodox Study Bible.

Our readings today will be from 1st Kingdoms chapter 1, verse 1 through chapter 2, verse 17.

Psalm 77 verses 56 through 72, Proverbs chapter 16 verses 21 through 25, and Luke chapter 7 verses 18 through 50.

We begin the first book of the kingdoms today. I'll be referring to it as 1st Kingdoms. The Hebrew Bible calls it 1st Samuel.

So there are four of these books. The Septuagint calls them the first book of the kingdoms, the second book of the kingdoms, the third book of the kingdoms, and the fourth book of the kingdoms.

The Hebrew Bible calls them 1st Samuel, 2nd Samuel, 1st Kings, and 2nd Kings.

In the original Hebrew Bible, all these four books were just one book, one big book. When the Septuagint was translated, going from the original Hebrew to the Greek, it was broken into four books, the four kingdoms.

Sometime after this, a new Hebrew translation was made. Most of our current English Bibles come from the newer Hebrew translation.

And when the King James translation was made in 1611, these four books were named 1st and 2nd Samuel, and 1st and 2nd Kings.

So kingdoms begins with the end of the period of the judges. We will meet Eli early on and his disciple Samuel. Samuel becomes one of the greatest leaders of the people. He was the last judge, as well as a great prophet.

During this time, the people of Israel had basically fallen into a period of anarchy where everyone did what was right in their own eyes.

Samuel will be the one who will introduce kingship into the culture of Israel, and we will meet in this first book of the kingdoms, the first king, Saul, and be introduced to the next.

David, let's begin.

The first book of kingdoms, chapter 1 through chapter 2, verse 17.

There was a certain man of Ramathayim Zofim on the mountain of Ephraim, whose name was Elkanah, the son of Jeremiah, the son of Elihu, the son of Toki in Nasiv Ephraim.

He had two wives, the name of one was Hannah, and the name of the other was Penina. Penina had children, but Hannah, none.

And each year the man went up from his city of Ramathayim to worship and sacrifice to Lord Sabayoth in Shiloh.

Eli and his two sons, Hophni and Phineas, both priests of the Lord, went there as well.

And on the day he came Elkanah sacrificed and gave a portion to Penina, his wife, and to his sons and daughters.

To Hannah he gave one portion, since she was without child.

However Elkanah loved Hannah more than the other one, but the Lord had closed her womb, because the Lord did not give to her a child during her tribulation, and during the discouragement of her tribulation, she was broken-hearted.

The Lord had closed her womb and did not give her a child. So year by year when she went up to the house of the Lord, she was broken-hearted and wept and did not eat.

Then Elkanah her husband said to her, Hannah, and she said to him, Here I am, Lord, then he said to her, What is the matter with you? Why do you not eat and why are you heart sick? Am I not better for you than ten children?

So Hannah arose after they had finished eating in Shiloh, and she sat down before the Lord.

Eli, the priest, was sitting nearby on the seat by the doorpost of the temple of the Lord. Hannah was grieved in spirit and prayed to the Lord, lamenting and weeping.

She prayed a vile to the Lord God and said, Oh Lord, my God of Sabaoth, if you are looking, look with favor upon the lowly state of your handmaiden, and remember me.

I pray you give your handmaiden a seed of men, a son, and I will dedicate him before you as a gift until the day of his death.

He will not drink wine or intoxicating drink, and no razor shall come upon his head.

And as she kept praying before the Lord, Eli watched her mouth, and as she spoke in her heart only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard.

Therefore Eli thought she was drunk. The servant of God said to her, For how long will you remain drunk? Cast off your wine and go out from the face of the Lord.

But Hannah answered and said, No Lord, I am a woman for whom this day is difficult. I drink neither wine nor intoxicating drink, but I pour out my soul before the Lord.

Do not consider your handmaiden a daughter of pestilence, just because of the multitude of my idle words I have put forth.

Then Eli answered and said to her, Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant you the petition you asked of him.

And she said, Your handmaiden has found favor in your sight, so the woman went her way, and came into her lodging, and ate and drank with her husband. Her face was no longer fallen.

Then they rose early in the morning, and worshiped the Lord, and went on their way back to Elkana's house at Ramathaim, and he knew Hannah his wife, and the Lord remembered her.

She conceived, and it came to be at the appointed time she bore a son, and she called him Samuel, and said, Because I asked for him from the Lord God of Sabaoth.

Now the man Elkana and all his house went up to Shiloh to offer the yearly sacrifice, his vow, and the tenth portion of all his land.

But Hannah did not go up with him, for she said to her husband, I will not go up until our boy is weaned from me.

Then he will appear in the presence of the Lord, and stay there continually.

And Elkana, her husband said to her, Do what is good in your eyes, wait until you have weaned him, only let the Lord confirm as true what was coming out of your mouth, so the woman stayed and nursed her son until she weaned him.

And she went up with him to Shiloh, with a calf, three years old, loaves of bread, one effa of flour, and a skin of wine.

He came to the house of the Lord in Shiloh, and the child was with them, and they came before the Lord and his father slaughtered the offering he made yearly to the Lord.

He brought the child and slaughtered the calf.

Then Hannah, the mother of the young boy, went to Eli, and she said to him, Lord, as your soul lives, I am the woman who is standing near you while I pray to the Lord.

For this child I prayed, and the Lord gave me my request which I asked from him, and I lend him to the Lord all the days which he lives to be fruitful to the Lord.

And she said, My heart is strengthened in the Lord.

My horn is exalted in my God. I smile at my enemies. I rejoice in your salvation, because no one is holy like the Lord.

No one is righteous like our God. No one is holy but you. Do not boast nor speak of high things. Let no arrogance come from your mouth.

For the Lord is the God of knowledge, and God is preparing His actions. He weakened the bow of mighty men, and those who are weak are girded with strength.

Those who were full of bread were made empty, and the hungry have forsaken the land. The barren woman has born seven, and she who has many children has become feeble.

The Lord kills and makes alive. He brings down to Hades and raises up. The Lord makes poor and rich. He brings low and lifts up.

He raises the poor from the earth, and lifts the needy from the dung heap. To set them among princely people, and make them inherit a throne of glory.

The one who gives a prayer to the one praying, he blesses with righteous years. For by strength no man can prevail. The Lord makes His adversaries weak. The Lord is holy.

Let not the man of learning boast in his understanding nor let the man of might boast in his might, nor let the man of riches boast in his riches.

Only let the one who boasts boast in this, to understand and to know the Lord, and to do justice and righteousness in the midst of the earth.

The Lord went up into the heaven and thundered. The Lord judges the ends of the earth. He gives strength to our leaders, and he will exalt the horn of His Christ.

They left Him there before the Lord and went away to Ramathayim, and the child performed the services before the Lord in the presence of Eli, the priest.

Now the sons of Eli were sons of scoundrels, not knowing the Lord, and the custom of the priest for the people who sacrificed was for the servant of the priest to come while the meat was boiling with a three-pronged meat hook in his hand.

He would then thrust it into either the large kettle, or the brazen vessel, or the pot, and everything the meat hook brought up, the priest would take for himself.

So in Shiloh, they did this to all the Israelites who came there to sacrifice to the Lord.

Also, before they burned the fat, the servant came and said to the man who sacrificed, give some meat to be roasted to the priest, and I will not take any of your boiled meat from out of the cauldron.

And if the man sacrificing said to him, first he should burn the fat as fitting, then you may take as much as your soul desires, but he would say, no, you shall give it to me now, and if not, I will take it by force.

Therefore the sin of the servant is exceedingly great before the Lord, for they nullified the sacrifice of the Lord.

Psalm 77 verses 56 through 72.

They tested and rebelled against the most high God, and did not keep his testimonies, and they turned away and broke his covenant, just as their fathers did, and they changed into a crooked bow, and they provoked him to anger with their high places,

and moved him to jealousy with their carved images. God heard and despised them, and he utterly disdained Israel, and he rejected the tabernacle at Shiloh, his dwelling place where he settled among men.

He gave their strength into captivity, and their beauty into the hands of the enemy, and he gave his people over to the sword, and despised his inheritance.

The fire consumed their young men, and their virgins were not lamented. Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows were not lamented.

Then the Lord awoke as from sleep, like a strong man drunk from wine, and he struck his enemies from behind.

He gave them eternal reproach, and he rejected the dwelling of Joseph, and did not choose the tribe of Ephraim.

He chose the tribe of Judah, this mount Zion that he loves, and he built his sanctuary as the place of unicorns.

He founded it forever on the earth. He chose David for his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds.

He took him from behind sheep that gave birth to shepherd Jacob, his people, and Israel, his inheritance, and he shepherded them in the integrity of his heart, and guided them

with the skillfulness of his hands.

Proverbs 16.21-25

The heart of a wise man shall understand the things from his own mouth, and he shall carry knowledge upon his lips.

Good words are a honeycomb, and their sweetness is a healing of the soul.

There are ways that seem right to a man, however their ends look to the depths of Hades.

A man labors diligently for himself, and expels destruction from himself.

However, a perverse man carries destruction on his lips. A man without discernment digs up evil things for himself, and stores up fire on his own lips.

Luke chapter 7 verses 18-50

Then the disciples of John reported to him concerning all these things, and John calling two of his disciples to him, sent them to Jesus, saying,

Are you the coming one, or do we look for another? When the men had come to him they said,

John the Baptist has sent us to you saying, Are you the coming one, or do we look for another?

And that very hour he cured many of infirmities, afflictions, and evil spirits, and to many blind he gave sight.

Jesus answered and said to them, Go and tell John the things you have seen and heard, that the blind see, the lame walk,

the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the gospel preached to them, and blessed is he who is not offended because of me.

When the messengers of John had departed, he began to speak to the multitudes concerning John.

What did you go out into the wilderness to see, a reed shaken by the wind?

But what did you go out to see, a man clothed in soft garments, indeed those who are gorgeously appareled and live in luxury are in King's courts.

But what did you go out to see, a prophet?

Yes, I say to you, and more than a prophet, this is he of whom it is written.

Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you.

For I say to you, among those born of women, there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist, but he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.

And when all the people heard him, even the tax collectors justified God, having been baptized with the baptism of John.

But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the will of God for themselves, not having been baptized by him.

And the Lord said, to what then shall I like in the men of this generation, and what are they like?

They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another saying,

we played the flute for you, and you did not dance, we mourned to you, and you did not weep.

For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say, he has a demon.

The son of man has come eating and drinking, and you say, look, a glutton and a wine-bibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.

But wisdom is justified by all her children.

Then one of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him, and he went to the Pharisees' house, and sat down to eat.

And behold a woman in the city who was a sinner when she knew that Jesus sat at the table in the Pharisees' house,

brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil, and stood at his feet behind him, weeping, and she began to wash his feet with her tears,

and wiped them with the hair of her head, and she kissed his feet, and anointed them with the fragrant oil.

Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he spoke to himself, saying, this man, if he were a prophet,

would know who and what manner of woman this is who was touching him, for she is a sinner.

And Jesus answered, and said to him, Simon, I have something to say to you, so he said, teach or say it.

There was a certain creditor who had two debtors, one old, five hundred denari, and the other fifty.

And when they had nothing with which to repay, he freely forgave them both.

Tell me, therefore, which of them will love him more?

Simon answered and said, I suppose the one whom he forgave more, and he turned to him, you have rightly judged.

Then he turned to the woman, and said to Simon, do you see this woman? I entered your house.

You gave me no water for my feet, but she has washed my feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head.

You gave me no kiss, but this woman has not ceased to kiss my feet, since the time I came in.

You did not anoint my head with oil, but this woman has anointed my feet with fragrant oil.

Therefore I say to you, her sins which are many are forgiven, for she loved much, but to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little.

Then he said to her, your sins are forgiven.

And those who sat at the table with him began to say to themselves, who is this, who even forgives sins?

Then he said to the woman, your faith has saved you, go in peace.

In our Gospel reading, today we hear the story of Jesus forgiving the sinful woman in the house of the Pharisee.

One of the things that we learn here, as well as other places, is that moral virtue, while important, is not the most central.

Love and repentance are even more central. The Pharisee was virtuous, the woman was not, yet Jesus teaches the Pharisee that those who have been forgiven more, love more.

And her love for Jesus was greater than that of the Pharisees.

Now this doesn't mean that we should start living sinful lives so that we can love Jesus more, but that we should recognize,

that when we seem to have our lives on track and doing what we're supposed to be doing, there can be the temptation or really the tendency to feel that we don't need Christ or faith or repentance.

We start feeling that we're okay, and we can do things on our own, and we don't need the grace of God.

We lose humility.

We actually should strive for both, a virtuous life and a humble repentance.

As we say in one of the Lenten Matins hymns, which refers to the parable of the public and the Pharisee,

establish in me the good deeds of the One and the humility of mind of the other, confirming in me the good intentions of each, and save me, O Savior.

May this be our prayer as well, and tomorrow we will continue on our journey and hear the call of Samuel.

I'm Father Alexis, and remember Christ is in our midst.

You've been listening to daily Orthodox scriptures with Father Alexis Quarry.

You can always find us at dailyorthodoxchriptures.com. That's dailyorthodoxchriptures.com.

This has been a listener-supported presentation of Ancient Faith Radio.