Wednesday in the Third Week of Lent

At the Sixth Hour.

The Lesson of the Prophecy of Isaias.
Isaias 10:12-20.
And it shall come to pass, that when the Lord shall have performed all his works in mount Sion, and in Jerusalem, I will visit the fruit of the proud heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of the haughtiness of his eyes. For he hath said: By the strength of my own hand I have done it, and by my own wisdom I have understood: and I have removed the bounds of the people, and have taken the spoils of the princes, and as a mighty man hath pulled down them that sat on high. And my hand hath found the strength of the people as a nest; and as eggs are gathered, that are left, so have I gathered all the earth: and there was none that moved the wing, or opened the mouth, or made the least noise. Shall the axe boast itself against him that cutteth with it? or shall the saw exalt itself against him by whom it is drawn? as if a rod should lift itself up against him that lifteth it up, and a staff exalt itself, which is but wood. Therefore the sovereign Lord, the Lord of hosts, shall send leanness among his fat ones: and under his glory shall be kindled a burning, as it were the burning of a fire. And the light of Israel shall be as a fire, and the Holy One thereof as a flame: and his thorns and his briers shall be set on fire, and shall be devoured in one day. And the glory of his forest, and of his beautiful hill, shall be consumed from the soul even to the flesh, and he shall run away through fear. And they that remain of the trees of his forest shall be so few, that they shall easily be numbered, and a child shall write them down. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the remnant of Israel, and they that shall escape of the house of Jacob, shall lean no more upon him that striketh them: but they shall lean upon the Lord the Holy One of Israel, in truth.

At Vespers.

The Lesson of Genesis.
Genesis 7:6-9.
And Noe was six hundred years old, when the waters of the flood overflowed the earth. And Noe went in and his sons, his wife and the wives of his sons with him into the ark, because of the waters of the flood. And of beasts clean and unclean, and of fowls, and of every thing that moveth upon the earth, two and two went in to Noe into the ark, male and female, as the Lord had commanded Noe.

The Lesson of Proverbs.
Proverbs 9:12-18.
If thou be wise, thou shalt be so to thyself: and if a scorner, thou alone shalt bear the evil. A foolish woman and clamorous, and full of allurements, and knowing nothing at all, sat at the door of her house, upon a seat, in a high place of the city, to call them that pass by the way, and go on their journey: He that is a little one, let him turn to me. And to the fool she said: Stolen waters are sweeter, and hidden bread is more pleasant. And he did not know that giants are there, and that her guests are in the depths of hell.