Holy is the LORD

1In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon hisa throne, high and exalted. The train of his robe filled the Temple. 2The seraphim stood above him. Each had six wings:b with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he was flying. 3They kept on calling to each other:c

“Holy, holy, holyd is the LORD of the Heavenly Armies!

The whole earth is full of his glory!”

4The foundations of the thresholds quaked at the sound of those who kept calling out,e and the Temple was filled with smoke.

5“How terrible it will be for me!” I cried, “because I am ruined! I’m a man with unclean lips, and I live among a people with unclean lips! And my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of the Heavenly Armies!”

The Calling of Isaiah

6Then one of the seraphim flew to me, carrying a burning coal in his hand that he had taken from the altar with tongs. 7He touched my mouth and said, “Look! Now that this has touched yourf lips, your guilt is taken away, and your sinsg atoned for.”

8Then I heard the voice of the LORD as he was asking, “Whom will I send? Who will go for us?”

“Here I am!” I replied. “Send me.”

9“Go!” he responded. “Tell this people:

“‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand;

keeph on seeing, but do not perceive.’

10Dull the mindi of this people,

deafen their ears,

and blind their eyes.

By doing so, they won’t see with their eyes,

hear with their ears,

understand with their minds,

turn back,

and be healed.”

11Then I asked, “For how long, LORD?”j

He replied:

“Until cities lie waste,

without inhabitants,

and houses without people;

and the land becomes utterly desolate.

12Untilk the LORD removes people far away,

and there are many empty places

in the middle of the land.

13Even though a tenth of its people remainl in it,

it will once again be burned,m

like a terebinthn or an oak tree,o

the stump of which, though the tree has beenp felled,

still contains holy seed.”q