Wednesday, March 23, 2022

Twenty-Fourth Day (Median) of Great Lent

Exodus 3:16-22
Joel 3:1-8

Exodus 3:16-22

[16] Go and gather the elders of Israel together, and say to them, `The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has appeared to me, saying, “I have observed you and what has been done to you in Egypt;
[17] and I promise that I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt, to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Per’izzites, the Hivites, and the Jeb’usites, a land flowing with milk and honey.”‘
[18] And they will hearken to your voice; and you and the elders of Israel shall go to the king of Egypt and say to him, `The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us; and now, we pray you, let us go a three days’ journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the LORD our God.’
[19] I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless compelled by a mighty hand.
[20] So I will stretch out my hand and smite Egypt with all the wonders which I will do in it; after that he will let you go.
[21] And I will give this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians; and when you go, you shall not go empty,
[22] but each woman shall ask of her neighbor, and of her who sojourns in her house, jewelry of silver and of gold, and clothing, and you shall put them on your sons and on your daughters; thus you shall despoil the Egyptians.”

Joel 3:1-8

[1] “For behold, in those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem,
[2] I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the valley of Jehosh’aphat, and I will enter into judgment with them there, on account of my people and my heritage Israel, because they have scattered them among the nations, and have divided up my land,
[3] and have cast lots for my people, and have given a boy for a harlot, and have sold a girl for wine, and have drunk it.
[4] “What are you to me, O Tyre and Sidon, and all the regions of Philistia? Are you paying me back for something? If you are paying me back, I will requite your deed upon your own head swiftly and speedily.
[5] For you have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried my rich treasures into your temples.
[6] You have sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks, removing them far from their own border.
[7] But now I will stir them up from the place to which you have sold them, and I will requite your deed upon your own head.
[8] I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the sons of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabe’ans, to a nation far off; for the LORD has spoken.”

The Revised Standard Version of the Bible is copyright © National Council of Churches of Christ in America