The first reading is a reading from the Book of Numbers.

From Mount Hoare, the children of Israel set out on the Red Sea road to bypass the land of Edom.

But with their patience worn out by the journey, the people complained against God and Moses.

Why have you brought us up from Egypt to die in this desert?

Where there is no food or water, we are disgusted with this wretched food.

In punishment, the Lord sent among the people seraph serpents, which bit the people so that many of them died. Then the people came to Moses and

said, We have sin in complaining against the Lord and you. Pray the Lord to take the serpents away from us.

So Moses prayed to the people. The Lord said to Moses, make a seraph and mounted on a pole.

And whoever looks at this after being bitten will live. Moses accordingly made a bronze serpent and mounted it on a pole, and whoever looks at this after being bitten will live. Moses accordingly made a bronze serpent

and mounted it on a pole, and whenever anyone who had been bitten by a serpent looked at the

bronze serpent, he lived. The word of the Lord, thanks be to God.

O Lord, hear my prayer and let my cry come to you.

O Lord, hear my prayer and let my cry come to you.

O Lord, hear my prayer and let my cry come to you.

Hide not your face from me in the day of distress, incline your ear to me,

in the day when I call, answer me speedily.

O Lord, hear my prayer and let my cry come to you.

The nation shall revere your name, O Lord, and all the kings of the earth will your glory.

When the Lord has rebuilt Zion and appeared in his glory, when he has regarded the prayer of the destitute and not despise their prayer. O Lord, hear my prayer and let my cry come to you. Let this be written for the generations to come,

and let his future creatures praise the Lord. The Lord looked down from his holy height, and from heaven

he beheld the earth,

to hear the groaning of the prisoners and release those doomed to die.

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