Isaiah 6

¹In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne , high and lifted up ; and the train of his robe filled the temple .

²Above him stood the seraphim . Each had six wings : with two he covered his face , and with two he covered his feet , and with two he flew .

³And one called to another and said : Holy , holy , holy is the Lord of hosts ; the whole earth is full of his glory !

⁴And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called , and the house was filled with smoke .

⁵And I said : Woe is me! For I am lost ; for I am a man of unclean lips , and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips ; for my eyes have seen the King , the Lord of hosts !

⁶Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar .

⁷And he touched my mouth and said : Behold , this has touched your lips ; your guilt is taken away , and your sin atoned for .

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

⁹And he said , Go , and say to this people : Keep on hearing , but do not understand ; keep on seeing , but do not perceive .

¹⁰Make the heart of this people dull , and their ears heavy , and blind their eyes ; lest they see with their eyes , and hear with their ears , and understand with their hearts , and turn and be healed .

¹¹Then I said , How long , O Lord ? And he said : Until cities lie waste without inhabitant , and houses without people , and the land is a desolate waste ,

¹²and the Lord removes people far away , and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land .

¹³And though a tenth remain in it, it will be burned again , like a terebinth or an oak , whose stump remains when it is felled . The holy seed is its stump .