Saturday of the 3rd week of Lent

1“Come! Let’s return to the LORD;

for he has torn us to pieces,

and he will heal us;

he has injured us,

and he will bind up our wounds.

2After two days he will revive us.

On the third day he will raise us up,

and we will live before him.

3Let’s acknowledge the LORD.

Let’s press on to know the LORD.

As surely as the sun rises,

the LORD will appear.

He will come to us like the rain,

like the spring rain that waters the earth.”

4“Ephraim, what shall I do to you?

Judah, what shall I do to you?

For your love is like a morning cloud,

and like the dew that disappears early.

5Therefore I have cut them to pieces with the prophets;

I killed them with the words of my mouth.

Your judgments are like a flash of lightning.

6For I desire mercy, and not sacrifice;

and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.

1Have mercy on me, God, according to your loving kindness.

According to the multitude of your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions.

2Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity.

Cleanse me from my sin.

…

16For you don’t delight in sacrifice, or else I would give it.

You have no pleasure in burnt offering.

17The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit.

O God, you will not despise a broken and contrite heart.

18Do well in your good pleasure to Zion.

Build the walls of Jerusalem.

19Then you will delight in the sacrifices of righteousness,

in burnt offerings and in whole burnt offerings.

Then they will offer bulls on your altar.

9He also spoke this parable to certain people who were convinced of their own righteousness, and who despised all others: 10“Two men went up into the temple to pray; one was a Pharisee, and the other was a tax collector. 11The Pharisee stood and prayed by himself like this: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of men: extortionists, unrighteous, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I get.’ 13But the tax collector, standing far away, wouldn’t even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his chest, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ 14I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.”