Isaiah 6

English Standard Version

Isaiah's Vision of the Lord

6 In the year that ^(A)King Uzziah died I ^(B)saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train^[a] of his robe filled the temple. ²Above him stood the seraphim. Each had ^(C)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:

^(D)“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
^(E)the whole earth is full of his glory!”^[b]

⁴And ^(F)the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and ^(G)the house was filled with smoke. ⁵And I said: “Woe is me! ^(H)For I am lost; ^(I)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 ^(J)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 ^(K)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 ^(L)us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.” ⁹And he said, “Go, and say to this people:

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

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Footnotes

Isaiah 6:1 Or hem
Isaiah 6:3 Or may his glory fill the whole earth
Isaiah 6:9 Or Hear indeed
Isaiah 6:9 Or see indeed
Isaiah 6:10 Hebrew fat
Isaiah 6:13 Or purged
Isaiah 6:13 Or offspring

Mark 4:1-12

English Standard Version

The Parable of the Sower

4 Again ^(A)he began to teach beside the sea. And a very large crowd gathered about him, ^(B)so that he got into a boat and sat in it on the sea, and the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land. ²And ^(C)he was teaching them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them: ³“Listen! Behold, ^(D)a sower went out to sow. ⁴And as he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it. ⁵Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and immediately it sprang up, since it had no depth of soil. ⁶And ^(E)when the sun rose, it was scorched, and since it had no root, ^(F)it withered away. ⁷Other seed fell among ^(G)thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. ⁸And other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and ^(H)a hundredfold.” ⁹And he said, ^(I)“He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

The Purpose of the Parables

¹⁰And ^(J)when he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parables. ¹¹And he said to them, ^(K)“To you has been given ^(L)the secret of the kingdom of God, but for ^(M)those outside everything is in parables, ¹²^(N)so that