Isaiah 6

¹ In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and his train filled the temple.

² Above 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.

³ And one called to another and said: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory."

⁴ And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.

⁵ And 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!"

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

⁷ And he touched my mouth, and said: "Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin forgiven."

⁸ And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" Then I said, "Here am I! Send me."

⁹ And he said, "Go, and say to this people: 'Hear and hear, but do not understand; see and see, but do not perceive.'

¹⁰ Make the heart of this people fat, and their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed."

¹¹ Then I said, "How long, O Lord?" And he said: "Until cities lie waste without inhabitant, and houses without men, and the land is utterly desolate,

¹² and the LORD removes men far away, and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land.

¹³ And though a tenth remain in it, it will be burned again, like a terebinth or an oak, whose stump remains standing when it is felled." The holy seed is its stump.