Isaiah's Vision of the Lord in His Glory

1IN the year that king Ozias died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and elevated: and his train filled the temple. 2Upon it stood the seraphims: the one had six wings, and the other had six wings: with two they covered his face, and with two they covered his feet, and with two they flew.

3And they cried one to another, and said: Holy, holy, holy, the Lord God of hosts, all the earth is full of his glory.

4And the lintels of the doors were moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.

5And I said: Woe is me, because I have held my peace; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people that hath unclean lips, and I have seen with my eyes the King the Lord of hosts.

6And one of the seraphims flew to me, and in his hand was a live coal, which he had taken with the tongs off the altar. 7And he touched my mouth, and said: Behold this hath touched thy lips, and thy iniquities shall be taken away, and thy sin shall be cleansed.

Isaiah's Commission

8And I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: Whom shall I send? and who shall go for us? And I said: Lo, here am I, send me.

9And he said: Go, and thou shalt say to this people: Hearing, hear, and understand not: and see the vision, and know it not.

10Blind the heart of this people, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes: lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and be converted and I heal them.

11And I said: How long, O Lord? And he said: Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land shall be left desolate.

12And the Lord shall remove men far away, and she shall be multiplied that was left in the midst of the earth.

13And there shall be still a tithing therein, and she shall turn, and shall be made a show as a turpentine tree, and as an oak that spreadeth its branches: that which shall stand therein, shall be a holy seed.