Isaiah 6

Isaiah’s Vision of the Lord

¹In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple.[#1:1; 2 Chr. 26:16-21; #John 12:41; #6:1 Or hem]

²Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.[#Rev. 4:8]

³And one called to another and said:

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

the whole earth is full of his glory!”

⁴And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.[#Amos 9:1; #1 Kgs. 8:10, 11; Rev. 15:8; Ex. 19:18]

⁵And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for 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 King, the Lord of hosts!”[#Judg. 13:22; #Luke 5:8; #33:17; Jer. 10:10; 1 Sam. 12:12]

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 touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”[#Jer. 1:9; Dan. 10:16]

Isaiah’s Commission from the Lord

⁸And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.”[#Gen. 1:26]

⁹And he said, “Go, and say to this people:

“‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand;

keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’

¹⁰Make the heart of this people dull,[#John 12:40; #Ps. 119:70; #6:10 Hebrew]

and their ears heavy,

and blind their eyes;

lest they see with their eyes,

and hear with their ears,

and understand with their hearts,

and turn and be healed.”

¹¹Then I said, “How long, O Lord?”[#Ps. 79:5; 89:46]

And he said:

“Until cities 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.

¹³And though a tenth remain in it,[#10:22]

it will be burned again,

like a terebinth or an oak,

whose stump remains

when it is felled.”

The holy seed is its stump.