Lent Scripture 1: Ash Wednesday

Joel 2:12-18

Return to the Lord

¹² “Yet even now,” declares the Lord,    “return to me with all your heart,with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;¹³     and rend your hearts and not your garments.”Return to the Lord your God,    for he is gracious and merciful,slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love;    and he relents over disaster.¹⁴ Who knows whether he will not turn and relent,    and leave a blessing behind him,a grain offering and a drink offering    for the Lord your God?

¹⁵ Blow the trumpet in Zion;    consecrate a fast;call a solemn assembly;¹⁶     gather the people.Consecrate the congregation;    assemble the elders;gather the children,    even nursing infants.Let the bridegroom leave his room,    and the bride her chamber.

¹⁷ Between the vestibule and the altar    let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weepand say, “Spare your people, O Lord,    and make not your heritage a reproach,    a byword among the nations.^[a]Why should they say among the peoples,    ‘Where is their God?’”