6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 And 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

8 And 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.” 9 And 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.’

10  eMake 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.”

11  Then 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,

12  and the Lord removes people far away,

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

13  jAnd 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.