In the year that king Ozias died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and elevated: and his train filled the temple.

In anno quo mortuus est rex Ozias, vidi Dominum sedentem super solium excelsum et elevatum; et ea quæ sub ipso erant replebant templum.

In the year of king Ozias’ death, I had a vision. I saw the Lord sitting on a throne that towered high above me, the skirts of his robe filling the temple.

Upon it stood the seraphims: the one had six wings, and the other had six wings: with two they covered his face, and with two they covered his feet, and with two they flew.

Seraphim stabant super illud: sex alæ uni, et sex alæ alteri; duabus velabant faciem ejus, et duabus velabant pedes ejus, et duabus volabant.

Above it rose the figures of the seraphim, each of them six-winged; with two wings they veiled God’s face, with two his feet, and the other two kept them poised in flight.

And they cried one to another, and said: Holy, holy, holy, the Lord God of hosts, all the earth is full of his glory.

Et clamabant alter ad alterum, et dicebant: Sanctus, sanctus, sanctus Dominus, Deus exercituum; plena est omnis terra gloria ejus.

And ever the same cry passed between them, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts; all the earth is full of his glory.

And the lintels of the doors were moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.

Et commota sunt superliminaria cardinum a voce clamantis, et domus repleta est fumo.

The lintels over the doors rang with the sound of that cry, and smoke went up, filling the temple courts.

And I said: Woe is me, because I have held my peace; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people that hath unclean lips, and I have seen with my eyes the King the Lord of hosts.

Et dixi: Væ mihi, quia tacui, quia vir pollutus labiis ego sum, et in medio populi polluta labia habentis ego habito, et regem Dominum exercituum vidi oculis meis.

Alas, said I, that I must needs keep silence; my lips, and the lips of all my countrymen, are polluted with sin; and yet these eyes have looked upon their King, the Lord of hosts.

And one of the seraphims flew to me, and in his hand was a live coal, which he had taken with the tongs off the altar.

Et volavit ad me unus de seraphim, et in manu ejus calculus, quem forcipe tulerat de altari,

Whereupon one of the seraphim flew up to me, bearing a coal which he had taken with a pair of tongs from the altar;

And he touched my mouth, and said: Behold this hath touched thy lips, and thy iniquities shall be taken away, and thy sin shall be cleansed.

et tetigit os meum, et dixit: Ecce tetigit hoc labia tua, et auferetur iniquitas tua, et peccatum tuum mundabitur.

he touched my mouth with it, and said, Now that this has touched thy lips, thy guilt is swept away, thy sin pardoned.

And I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: Whom shall I send? and who shall go for us? And I said: Lo, here am I, send me.

Et audivi vocem Domini dicentis: Quem mittam? et quis ibit nobis? Et dixi: Ecce ego, mitte me.

And now I heard the Lord say, Who shall be my messenger? Who is to go on this errand of ours? And I said, I am here at thy command; make me thy messenger.

And he said: Go, and thou shalt say to this people: Hearing, hear, and understand not: and see the vision, and know it not.

Et dixit: Vade, et dices populo huic: Audite audientes, et nolite intelligere; et videte visionem, et nolite cognoscere.

Go then, said he, and give a message to this people of mine: Listen as you will, but ever without understanding; watch all, and nothing perceive!

Blind the heart of this people, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes: lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and be converted and I heal them.

Excæca cor populi hujus, et aures ejus aggrava, et oculos ejus claude: ne forte videat oculis suis, et auribus suis audiat, et corde suo intelligat, et convertatur, et sanem eum.

Thy office is to dull the hearts of this people of mine, deaden their ears, dazzle their eyes, so that they cannot see with those eyes, hear with those ears, understand with that heart, and turn back to me, and win healing.

And I said: How long, O Lord? And he said: Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land shall be left desolate.

Et dixi: Usquequo, Domine? Et dixit: Donec desolentur civitates absque habitatore, et domus sine homine, et terra relinquetur deserta.

For how long, Lord? I asked. And he said, Till the cities are left unpeopled, and the houses untenanted, and the whole land a wilderness.

And the Lord shall remove men far away, and she shall be multiplied that was left in the midst of the earth.

Et longe faciet Dominus homines, et multiplicabitur quæ derelicta fuerat in medio terræ.

The Lord will send its people into exile far away; wider, ever wider desolation must spread over it.

And there shall be still a tithing therein, and she shall turn, and shall be made a show as a turpentine tree, and as an oak that spreadeth its branches: that which shall stand therein, shall be a holy seed.

Et adhuc in ea decimatio, et convertetur, et erit in ostensionem sicut terebinthus, et sicut quercus quæ expandit ramos suos; semen sanctum erit id quod steterit in ea.

Though a tenth of their number remain, it is but empty show, like leafage of terebinth or oak that needs pruning; only a remnant of it will be left, the true stock of holiness.