Isaiah’s Commission

6 In the year of the death of Uzziah the king,I saw the Lord sitting on a high and raised throne,

and the hem of his robe was filling the temple.

2 Seraphs were standing above him. Each had six wings:[fn] with two he covered his face,

and with two he covered his feet,

and with two he flew.

• 3 And the one called to the other and said,“Holy, holy, holy is Yahweh of hosts!
  • The[fn]
• 4 And the pivots of the thresholds shook from the sound of those who called,and the house[fn] was filled with smoke.
• 5 And I said, “Woe to me! For I am destroyed![fn] For I am a man[fn]
  • and I am living among[fn] a people [fn]
• for my eyes have seen the king, Yahweh of hosts!”

6 Then one of the seraphs flew to me,and in his hand was a hot coal he had taken from the altar with tongs.

• 7 And he touched my mouth, and he said,“Look! This has touched your lips
  • and has removed your guilt,
  • and your sin is annulled.”
• 8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying,“Whom shall I send?
  • And who will go for us?”

And I said,

• “I am here!
  • Send me!”

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

• ‘Keep on listening and do not comprehend!
  • And keep on looking and do not understand!’
  • 10  and make its ears unresponsive,
  • and shut its eyes
• so that it may not look with its eyes
  • and listen with its ears
  • and comprehend with its mind
  • and turn back, and it may be healed for him.”

11 Then I said,“Until when, Lord?”

And he said,

• “Until the cities lie wasted without inhabitant,
  • and houses without people,
  • and the land is ruined and a waste,
  • 12  and the abandonment is great in the midst of the land.
  • 13 [fn] [fn] like a terebinth or like an oak,
  • which although felled, a tree stump remains in them.
• The seed of holiness will be her tree stump.”