Isaiah 6

1In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, lofty and exalted, and the hem of his robe filled the temple.

2Seraphim stood above him, each with six wings: two to cover his face, two to cover his feet, and two to fly with.

3They were calling to each other, “Holy, holy, holy is Yahweh of Armies! His glory fills all the earth.”

4At the voice of the one calling, the bases of the thresholds trembled, and smoke kept filling the house.

5Then I said, “Woe to me, for I am undone! I am a man whose lips are unclean, and I live among a people whose lips are unclean, yet my eyes have seen the King, Yahweh of Armies!”

6One of the seraphim flew to me holding a burning coal that he had taken from the altar with tongs.

7He touched it to my mouth and said, “Look, this has touched your lips; your guilt is removed, and atonement is made for your sin.”

8Then I heard the Lord’s voice asking, “Whom am I to send, and who will go for us?” I said, “Here I am; send me.”

9He said, “Go and tell this people: ‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’

10Make the heart of this people dull, make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes, so that they will not see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.”

11Then I said, “How long, Lord?” He answered, “Until cities lie in ruins with no one living in them, and houses with no people in them, and the land is utterly desolate,

12and Yahweh has sent the people far away, and the deserted places in the land are many.

13Even if a tenth is left in it, it will once more be given to burning, like a terebinth or an oak that leaves a stump standing when it is felled. Its stump is a holy seed.”