Isaiah - Chapter 6

1 In the year of the death of king Uziah, I saw Mar-Yah seated on a high throne, and the edge of his mantle filled his temple.

2 Over him there were serafin; each one had six wings; with two they covered their faces, [and] with two they covered their feet and with two they flew.

3 and they proclaimed one to the other, saying: Holy, Holy Holy are you Mar-Yah of the hosts, for all the earth is full of his glory!

4 And the posts of the doors shook because of the roar of the proclamation, and the house filled with smoke.

5 Then I said: Woe is me! because I am confused. I am a man of impure lips that dwells in the midst of a people of impure lips, my eyes - they have seen the King, Mar-Yah of the hosts.

6 Then one of the serafin flew towards me bringing in his hand an ignited coal, which he had taken (up) with tongs from the altar;

7 and touching my mouth, [he] said: (I have) here this [which] has been called [to be touched] upon your lips to clear your iniquity and so that your sins are pardoned.

8 Then I heard the voice of Mar-Yah which said: Whom shall I send, and who will go? And I responded: Here, here, do send me.

9 And He said to me: You go, tell this people: "Certainly they will hear, but they will not understand; certainly they will see, but they will not perceive,

10 because the heart of this people has been hardened [in them]. They have deafened their ears and have closed their eyes, so that they do not see with their eyes, neither hear with their ears, nor understand with their heart, nor regret, nor are they pardoned.

11 Then I said: Until when, Oh Mar-Yah? And He responded: Until the cities are desolate and without inhabitants, the houses are without men, and the land devastated and desert,

12 when Mar-Yah has moved the sons of men far away, and great (shall be) the abandonment in the midst of the land,

13 although they that remain in her (shall be) one tenth, (and they) will return and they will be burned, like the terebinth and the oak (tree) which falls from its trunk. The holy seed is its trunk.

(From the Pshitta Tanakh translation of Y. Younan-Levine, with minor adjustments to the text, used with permission)