¹⁷ How can I, your servant, talk with you, my lord? My strength is gone and I can hardly breathe.”^(A)

Isaiah’s Commission

6 In the year that King Uzziah^(A) died,^(B) I saw the Lord,^(C) high and exalted,^(D) seated on a throne;^(E) and the train of his robe^(F) filled the temple. ² Above him were seraphim,^(G) each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet,^(H) and with two they were flying. ³ And they were calling to one another:

⁴ At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.^(M)

⁵ “Woe^(N) to me!” I cried. “I am ruined!^(O) For I am a man of unclean lips,^(P) and I live among a people of unclean lips,^(Q) and my eyes have seen^(R) the King,^(S) the Lord Almighty.”^(T)

¹⁰ and saw^(A) the God of Israel. Under his feet was something like a pavement made of lapis lazuli,^(B) as bright blue as the sky.^{(C) 11} But God did not raise his hand against these leaders of the Israelites; they saw^(D) God, and they ate and drank.^(E)

¹⁸ No one has ever seen God,^(A) but the one and only Son, who is himself God and^[a](B) is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.

³⁶ David himself, speaking by the Holy Spirit,^(A) declared:

⁴³ He said to them, “How is it then that David, speaking by the Spirit, calls him ‘Lord’? For he says,

²¹ When the angel of the Lord did not show himself again to Manoah and his wife, Manoah realized^(A) that it was the angel of the Lord.

²² “We are doomed^(B) to die!” he said to his wife. “We have seen^(C) God!”

²³ But his wife answered, “If the Lord had meant to kill us, he would not have accepted a burnt offering and grain offering from our hands, nor shown us all these things or now told us this.”^(D)

²² When Gideon realized^(A) that it was the angel of the Lord, he exclaimed, “Alas, Sovereign Lord! I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face!”^(B)

²⁰ But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for no one may see^(A) me and live.”