Dual PanelThe calling of Isaiah
1IN the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the skirt of his robe filled the temple.
2Seraphim were in attendance on him. Each had six wings: with one pair of wings they covered their faces and with another their bodies, and with the third pair they flew.
3They were calling to one another, “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of Hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.”
4As each called, the threshold shook to its foundations at the sound, while the house began to fill with clouds of smoke.
5Then I said, “Woe is me! I am doomed, for my own eyes have seen the King, the LORD of Hosts, I, a man of unclean lips, I, who dwell among a people of unclean lips.”
6One of the seraphim flew to me, carrying in his hand a glowing coal which he had taken from the altar with a pair of tongs.
7He touched my mouth with it and said, “This has touched your lips; now your iniquity is removed and your sin is wiped out.”
8I heard the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?”
9I said: “Here am I! Send me.” He replied: “Go, tell this people: However hard you listen, you will never understand. However hard you look, you will never perceive.
10This people's wits are dulled; they have stopped their ears and shut their eyes, so that they may not see with their eyes, nor listen with their ears, nor understand with their wits, and then turn and be healed.”
11I asked, “Lord, how long?” And he answered, “Until cities fall in ruins and are deserted, until houses are left without occupants, and the land lies ruined and waste.”
12The LORD will drive the people far away, and the country will be one vast desolation.
13Even though a tenth part of the people were to remain, they too would be destroyed like an oak or terebinth when it is felled, and only a stump remains. Its stump is a holy seed.