Wednesday in the First Week of Lent

At the Sixth Hour.

The Lesson of the Prophecy of Isaias.
Isaias 2:3b-11.
Thus saith the Lord: For the law shall come forth from Sion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And he shall judge the Gentiles, and rebuke many people: and they shall turn their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into sickles: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they be exercised any more to war. O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the Lord. For thou hast cast off thy people, the house of Jacob: because they are filled as in times past, and have had soothsayers as the Philistines, and have adhered to strange children. Their land is filled with silver and gold: and there is no end of their treasures. And their land is filled with horses: and their chariots are innumerable. Their land also is full of idols: they have adored the work of their own hands, which their own fingers have made. And man hath bowed himself down, and man hath been debased: therefore forgive them not. Enter thou into the rock, and hide thee in the pit from the face of the fear of the Lord, and from the glory of his majesty. The lofty eyes of man are humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be made to stoop: and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.

At Vespers.

The Lesson of Genesis.
Genesis 1:24-2:3.
And God said: Let the earth bring forth the living creature in its kind, cattle and creeping things, and beasts of the earth, according to their kinds. And it was so done. And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds, and cattle, and every thing that creepeth on the earth after its kind. And God saw that it was good. And he said: Let us make man to our image and likeness: and let him have dominion over the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the air, and the beasts, and the whole earth, and every creeping creature that moveth upon the earth. And God created man to his own image: to the image of God he created him: male and female he created them. And God blessed them, saying: Increase and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it, and rule over the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the air, and all living creatures that move upon the earth. And God said: Behold I have given you every herb bearing seed upon the earth, and all trees that have in themselves seed of their own kind, to be your meat: and to all beasts of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to all that move upon the earth, and wherein there is life, that they may have to feed upon. And it was so done. And God saw all the things that he had made, and they were very good. And the evening and morning were the sixth day.So the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the furniture of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made: and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done. And he blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.

The Lesson of Proverbs.
Proverbs 2:1-22.
My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and wilt hide my commandments with thee, that thy ear may hearken to wisdom: Incline thy heart to know prudence: for if thou shalt call for wisdom, and incline thy heart to prudence: if thou shalt seek her as money, and shalt dig for her as for a treasure: then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and shalt find the knowledge of God. Because the Lord giveth wisdom: and out of his mouth cometh prudence and knowledge. He will keep the salvation of the righteous, and protect them that walk in simplicity. Keeping the paths of justice, and guarding the ways of saints. Then shalt thou understand justice, and judgment, and equity, and every good path. If wisdom shall enter into thy heart, and knowledge please thy soul: counsel shall keep thee, and prudence shall preserve thee, that thou mayst be delivered from the evil way, and from the man that speaketh perverse things: who leave the right way, and walk by dark ways: who are glad when they have done evil, and rejoice in most wicked things: whose ways are perverse, and their steps infamous. That thou mayst be delivered from the strange women, and from the stranger, who softeneth her words: and forsaketh the guide of her youth, and hath forgotten the covenant of her God: for her house inclineth unto death, and her paths to hell. None that go in unto her shall return again, neither shall they take hold of the paths of life, that thou mayst walk in a good way: and mayst keep the paths of the just. For they that are upright shall dwell in the earth, and the simple shall continue in it. But the wicked shall be destroyed from the earth: and they that do unjustly shall be taken away from it.