Isaiah 6
[Note: This will be a bit different for me because there is a small amount of narrative mixed in with the poetry in the Book of Isaiah. In this passage of Isaiah 6, Isaiah goes into the temple and sees a vision of the LORD seated on the throne with the seraphim.
In verse 8, the LORD asks: “Whom shall I send? Who will go for Us?” And Isaiah replies, “Here am I. Send me!”]
This is the setting from where the poem proceeds, beginning in verse 9.
In verse 8, the LORD asks: “Whom shall I send? Who will go for Us?” And Isaiah replies, “Here am I. Send me!”]
This is the setting from where the poem proceeds, beginning in verse 9.
Isaiah's Commission
He said, Go and tell, now, this people to hear:
keep hearing, but never believing their ear,
keep seeing, but never perceiving what's clear.
Then, harden the hearts of this people, your peers,
and make sure their ears and their eyes have been sealed.
Else, if they can see and can hear with their ears,
and if their hearts understand what is revealed,
they just might return back to me and be healed.
I said, For how long, LORD? He answered, Until
their cities are ruined and empty; until
their homes are deserted, abandoned, and still,
their fields have been ravaged and wasted; until
the LORD has sent everyone far, far away,
and Israel's desolate day after day.
If even a tenth should remain there, bereft,
the few that survive have more raids to withstand.
As oak and the terebinth stumps will be left,
the holy seed will be a stump in the land.
He said, Go and tell, now, this people to hear:
keep hearing, but never believing their ear,
keep seeing, but never perceiving what's clear.
Then, harden the hearts of this people, your peers,
and make sure their ears and their eyes have been sealed.
Else, if they can see and can hear with their ears,
and if their hearts understand what is revealed,
they just might return back to me and be healed.
I said, For how long, LORD? He answered, Until
their cities are ruined and empty; until
their homes are deserted, abandoned, and still,
their fields have been ravaged and wasted; until
the LORD has sent everyone far, far away,
and Israel's desolate day after day.
If even a tenth should remain there, bereft,
the few that survive have more raids to withstand.
As oak and the terebinth stumps will be left,
the holy seed will be a stump in the land.
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