UST ISA Chapter 6

◄ ISA 6 ► ║ ═ ©

6 During the year when King Uzziah died, I had a vision of the Lord. He was sitting on a very high throne. He was wearing a robe, and the bottom of it spread out and covered the floor of the temple. 2 Shining creatures were standing above the Lord. Each one had six wings. Each creature covered his face with two wings, covered his body with two wings, and flew with the other two wings. 3 They shouted to each other and said,

“Yahweh, the commander of the heavenly armies, is absolutely holy!

His glory fills the whole earth!”

4 When they shouted, the whole building shook, so that the heavy doors swayed in their sockets. Smoke filled the temple.

5 Then I cried out, “Something terrible is going to happen to me! I am going to die! Now that I have seen Yahweh, the great King, the commander of the heavenly armies, I realize that I do not speak purely, and I am part of a community of people who do not speak purely.” 6 Then one of the shining creatures picked up a burning coal from the altar with a pair of tongs. He flew to me with it. 7 He touched the coal to my lips and said, “Listen, this coal from the altar has touched your lips, so God has forgiven all of your sins.”

8 Then I heard the Lord ask, “Whom should I send as a messenger to my people? Who will go and speak for all of us?” I answered, “I will go! Send me!”

9 Then he said, “Go and say this to these people,

‘You will listen carefully to God’s message, but you will not understand it.

You will consider carefully what God is doing, but you will not know why he is doing it.’

10 Speak my message to these people even though, in response,

they will become less willing to obey me

and less able to understand what I want them to do.

If they did respond differently, they would understand what I wanted them to do,

they would be willing to obey me, and they would repent.

Then I would help them.”

11 Then I asked, “How long must I continue to do that, Lord?”

He replied, “You must do it until enemies destroy their cities

and no one lives in the houses in them anymore.

Do that until enemies have also completely ruined all the farmland.

12 Do that until I allow enemies to take the people away to other places

and large areas in the land of Israel are empty.

13 Even if one tenth of the people survive, enemies will come back and destroy them. They will do that in the same way that people burn the stump of a large tree that they have cut down. But I will set apart a small group of survivors from whom the nation can start growing again.”