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

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

But they're patient 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 peoples that many of them died.

Then the people came to Moses and said, we have sin and complaining against the Lord and you.

Pray the Lord to take the serpents away from us.

So Moses prayed for the people and the Lord said to Moses,

make a seraph and mount it on a pole.

And whoever looks at it 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 the serpent looked at this 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. Oh, Lord, hear my prayer and let my cry come

to you. Oh, Lord, hear my prayer and let my cry come to you. Hide not your face from me. In the day of my

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 nations shall

revere your name, O Lord, and all the kings of the earth your glory. When the Lord, as he built, Zion,

appeared in his glory, winners regarded the prayer of the destitute and not despise their prayer.

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

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