Isaiah 6

Isaiah’s Vision of the Lord

6In the year that ^sKing Uzziah died I ^tsaw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train¹ of his robe filled the temple. ²Above him stood the seraphim. Each had ^usix wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. ³And one called to another and said:

^u“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;

^vthe whole earth is full of his glory!”²

⁴And ^wthe foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and ^xthe house was filled with smoke. ⁵And I said: “Woe is me! ^yFor I am lost; ^zfor I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the ^aKing, the Lord of hosts!”

⁶Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. ⁷And he ^btouched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”

Isaiah’s Commission from the Lord

⁸And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for ^cus?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.” ⁹And he said, “Go, and say to this people:

^d“ ‘Keep on hearing,³ but do not understand;

keep on seeing,⁴ but do not perceive.’

^10eMake the heart of this people ^fdull,⁵

and their ears heavy,

and blind their eyes;

^glest they see with their eyes,

and hear with their ears,

and understand with their hearts,

and turn and be healed.”

¹¹Then I said, ^h“How long, O Lord?”

And he said:

“Until ⁱcities lie waste

without inhabitant,

and houses without people,

and the land is a desolate waste,

¹²and the Lord removes people far away,

and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land.

^13jAnd though a tenth remain in it,

it will be burned⁶ again,

like a terebinth or an oak,

whose stump ^kremains

when it is felled.”

^lThe holy seed⁷ is its stump.