Bible verses for lent and advent
Lent and Advent are seasons of waiting and preparation, so people reach for Scripture that names repentance and promise. The reading plans run for weeks, and the passages are chosen less for a single day than for a shape: a valley raised, a heart torn, a shoot from a stump, a tested Son of God. Different traditions set this course differently, and the lists are worth comparing rather than blending.
Isaiah 40:1-11
“prepare the way”1“Comfort, comfort my people,” says your God. 2“Speak comfortably to Jerusalem, and call out to her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received of Yahweh’s hand double for all her sins.” 3The voice of one who calls out, “Prepare the way of Yahweh in the wilderness! Make a level highway in the desert for our God. 4Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low. The uneven shall be made level, and the rough places a plain. 5Yahweh’s glory shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; for the mouth of Yahweh has spoken it.” 6The voice of one saying, “Cry out!” One said, “What shall I cry?” “All flesh is like grass, and all its glory is like the flower of the field. 7The grass withers, the flower fades, because Yahweh’s breath blows on it. Surely the people are like grass. 8The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God stands forever.” 9You who tell good news to Zion, go up on a high mountain. You who tell good news to Jerusalem, lift up your voice with strength! Lift it up! Don’t be afraid! Say to the cities of Judah, “Behold, your God!” 10Behold, the Lord Yahweh will come as a mighty one, and his arm will rule for him. Behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him. 11He will feed his flock like a shepherd. He will gather the lambs in his arm, and carry them in his bosom. He will gently lead those who have their young.
Read Isaiah 40 in full →Christian lectionaries appoint this prophecy for Advent, especially the Second Sunday in the Revised Common Lectionary and the Roman Catholic Mass. It introduces a voice crying in the wilderness, which the Gospels identify with John the Baptist, and the image of a level highway prepares the hearer for the Lord’s coming. The poem then shifts from judgment to comfort: God comes both as a mighty ruler and as a shepherd. In the liturgical shape, it tells the waiting church that preparation is not anxious work but an opening of the way. The original audience, however, was in Babylon, and the promise was about return from exile; the later use is a reuse of that promise.
Appointed by a tradition
Worth knowing: In its own context this is addressed to Judean exiles in Babylon, promising an end to exile. It is not a direct prediction of a coming Messiah; the Gospels apply it to John the Baptist, and Christian Advent reading follows that application.
Joel 2:12-13
“rend your heart”12“Yet even now,” says Yahweh, “turn to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning.” 13Tear your heart and not your garments, and turn to Yahweh, your God; for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, and relents from sending calamity.
Read Joel 2 in full →This short call to fasting, weeping, and mourning is assigned to Ash Wednesday in many Western lectionaries, including the Revised Common Lectionary and the Roman Catholic Ordo. It names the interior gesture Lent tries to form: tear your heart, not your garments. The passage presents God as gracious, merciful, slow to anger, and ready to relent, so repentance flows from trust in God’s character, not from fear. In Jewish tradition, Joel’s call is read on fast days and stands on its own as prophetic preaching. It is included in Lent because the season is built around exactly this return.
Appointed by a tradition
Worth knowing: Joel's call comes after a locust plague and a national crisis; the point is a whole community returning to God, not only a private Lenten mood.
Psalms 51:1-12
“create in me a clean heart”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. 3For I know my transgressions. My sin is constantly before me. 4Against you, and you only, I have sinned, and done that which is evil in your sight, so you may be proved right when you speak, and justified when you judge. 5Behold, I was born in iniquity. My mother conceived me in sin. 6Behold, you desire truth in the inward parts. You teach me wisdom in the inmost place. 7Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean. Wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. 8Let me hear joy and gladness, that the bones which you have broken may rejoice. 9Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all of my iniquities. 10Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a right spirit within me. 11Don’t throw me from your presence, and don’t take your Holy Spirit from me. 12Restore to me the joy of your salvation. Uphold me with a willing spirit.
Read Psalms 51 in full →This psalm is the most direct prayer of repentance in the Psalter, and it fits Lent because Lent is a season for confession and renewal. It moves from asking for mercy and cleansing to asking for a new heart and a willing spirit, which is why phrases like 'create in me a clean heart' appear in Lenten hymns and liturgies. The title connects it to David’s sin with Bathsheba, so it is read as a model of personal confession. Many churches appoint it for Ash Wednesday and on the Lenten Sundays. Its language of washing and cleansing makes it a natural companion to baptismal themes used in Lent.
The passage is about this
Worth knowing: Verse 5 is often used as a proof text for original sin; within the psalm it belongs to a confession of total sinfulness, not a doctrine about infants.
Isaiah 11:1-9
“a shoot from the stump of Jesse”1A shoot will come out of the stock of Jesse, and a branch out of his roots will bear fruit. 2Yahweh’s Spirit will rest on him: the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of Yahweh. 3His delight will be in the fear of Yahweh. He will not judge by the sight of his eyes, neither decide by the hearing of his ears; 4but he will judge the poor with righteousness, and decide with equity for the humble of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; and with the breath of his lips he will kill the wicked. 5Righteousness will be the belt around his waist, and faithfulness the belt around his waist. 6The wolf will live with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the young goat, the calf, the young lion, and the fattened calf together; and a little child will lead them. 7The cow and the bear will graze. Their young ones will lie down together. The lion will eat straw like the ox. 8The nursing child will play near a cobra’s hole, and the weaned child will put his hand on the viper’s den. 9They will not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of Yahweh, as the waters cover the sea.
Read Isaiah 11 in full →Christian lectionaries appoint this prophecy for Advent, especially the Second Sunday in the Revised Common Lectionary and the Roman Catholic Mass. It introduces a voice crying in the wilderness, which the Gospels identify with John the Baptist, and the image of a level highway prepares the hearer for the Lord’s coming. The poem then shifts from judgment to comfort: God comes both as a mighty ruler and as a shepherd. In the liturgical shape, it tells the waiting church that preparation is not anxious work but an opening of the way. The original audience, however, was in Babylon, and the promise was about return from exile; the later use is a reuse of that promise.
Appointed by a tradition
Worth knowing: In its own context this is addressed to Judean exiles in Babylon, promising an end to exile. It is not a direct prediction of a coming Messiah; the Gospels apply it to John the Baptist, and Christian Advent reading follows that application.
Matthew 4:1-11
“the temptation in the wilderness”1Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2When he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was hungry afterward. 3The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” 4But he answered, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of God’s mouth.’” 5Then the devil took him into the holy city. He set him on the pinnacle of the temple, 6and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and, ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you don’t dash your foot against a stone.’” 7Jesus said to him, “Again, it is written, ‘You shall not test the Lord, your God.’” 8Again, the devil took him to an exceedingly high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9He said to him, “I will give you all of these things, if you will fall down and worship me.” 10Then Jesus said to him, “Get behind me, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and you shall serve him only.’” 11Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and served him.
Read Matthew 4 in full →This Gospel account is read on the First Sunday of Lent in the Roman Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant lectionary cycles, and its forty days of fasting correspond to the forty days of Lent. It shows Jesus undergoing the same testing Israel faced in the wilderness, but answering from Deuteronomy rather than yielding. The three temptations are not merely moral lessons; they are a contest over what kind of Son of God Jesus will be. The passage ends with angels serving him, a sign that his obedience leads to restoration. For Lent, it anchors the season in solidarity with Christ’s journey rather than in individual self-improvement.
Appointed by a tradition
Worth knowing: The forty days mirror Lent, but the point is Jesus' victory as Israel's faithful son, not a general rule that Christians must reproduce this exact fast.
Where the traditions differ
Roman Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant lectionaries all read these texts in Advent and Lent, but they follow different calendars and assignments. The Revised Common Lectionary, used by many Protestant churches, and the Roman Catholic Lectionary agree on many but not all of the Sunday selections; Orthodox lectionaries attach these readings to specific weeks or feasts in another cycle. Jewish tradition does not keep Advent or Lent; Joel and Isaiah are heard as prophetic readings in the synagogue’s yearly cycle, and Psalm 51 remains part of the Psalter, not a fixed seasonal appointment.
Choosing
If you are using a church lectionary, follow its assigned reading for the week rather than mixing all these passages, because the sequence is designed around a year of readings. If you are making your own plan, let Isaiah 40 and Isaiah 11 frame the Advent promise, and let Joel, Psalm 51, and Matthew 4 move you from repentance to testing in Lent. You could also choose one of these as a weekly refrain, reading it slowly each day, so the 'prepare' or 'return' image shapes the season.
Scripture quoted from the World English Bible. The commentary is AI-generated and labelled by what kind of claim it makes; it is not the ruling of any tradition.