Isaiah 6:6-13

English Standard Version

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 ^(A)touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”

Isaiah's Commission from the Lord

⁸And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for ^(B)us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.” ⁹And he said, “Go, and say to this people:

^(C)“‘Keep on hearing,^[a] but do not understand;
keep on seeing,^[b] but do not perceive.’
¹⁰^(D)Make the heart of this people ^(E)dull,^[c]
    and their ears heavy,
    and blind their eyes;
^(F)lest they see with their eyes,
    and hear with their ears,
and understand with their hearts,
    and turn and be healed.”
¹¹Then I said, ^(G)“How long, O Lord?”
And he said:
“Until ^(H)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.
¹³^(I)And though a tenth remain in it,
    it will be burned^[d] again,
like a terebinth or an oak,
    whose stump ^(J)remains
    when it is felled.”
^(K)The holy seed^[e] is its stump.