Isaiah, 6

1. In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted; the train of his robe filled the Temple.

2. Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: two to cover the face, two to cover the feet, and two to fly with.

3. They were calling to one another: "Holy, holy, holy is Yahweh Sabaoth. All the earth is filled with his Glory!"

4. At the sound of their voices the foundations of the threshold shook and the Temple was filled with smoke.

5. I said, "Poor me! I am doomed! For I am a man of unclean lips living among a people of unclean lips, and yet I have seen the King, Yahweh Sabaoth."

6. Then one of the seraphs flew to me; in his hands was a live coal which he had taken with tongs from the altar.

7. He touched my mouth with it and said, "See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin is forgiven."

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

9. He said, "Go and tell this people: 'Much as you hear, you will not understand; much as you see, you do not perceive.'

10. Let their hearts be hardened, make their ears deaf and their eyes blind; what a misfortune for them, should they hear and see! Yet if they understood and came back to me I would heal them."

11. Then I said, "For how long, O Lord?" And he answered, "Until towns have been laid waste and left without inhabitant; until the houses are deserted and the fields ruined and ravaged,

12. until Yahweh has sent away the people and the fields are left deserted.

13. Even though a tenth remain in it, it will be burned. Yet there a stump will remain like that of a fallen oak; this stump is a holy seed."