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6.6 Then flew unto me one of the seraphim, with a glowing stone in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar; and he touched my mouth with it, and said:


 * Lo, this hath touched thy lips;
 * And thine iniquity is taken away,
 * And thy sin expiated.

And I heard the voice of the Lord, saying:


 * Whom shall I send,
 * And who will go for us?

Then I said: 'Here am I; send me.' And He said: 'Go, and tell this people:


 * Hear ye indeed, but understand not;
 * And see ye indeed, but perceive not.
 * Make the heart of this people fat,
 * And make their ears heavy,
 * And shut their eyes;
 * Lest they, seeing with their eyes,
 * And hearing with their ears,
 * And understanding with their heart,
 * Return, and be healed.'

Then said I: 'Lord, how long?' And He answered:


 * 'Until cities be waste without inhabitant,
 * And houses without man,
 * And the land become utterly waste,
 * And the have removed men far away,
 * And the forsaken places be many in the midst of the land.

And if there be yet a tenth in it, it shall again be eaten up; as a terebinth, and as an oak, whose stock remaineth, when they cast their leaves, so the holy seed shall be the stock thereof.'

And it came to pass in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin the king of Aram, and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to war against it; but could not prevail against it. And it was told the house of David, saying: 'Aram is confederate with Ephraim.' And his heart was moved, and the heart of his people, as the trees of the forest are moved with the wind.

Then said the unto Isaiah: 'Go forth now to meet Ahaz, thou, and Shear-jashub thy son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool, in the highway of the fullers' field; and say unto him. Keep calm, and be quiet; fear not, neither let thy heart be faint, because of these two tails of smoking firebrands, for the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram, and of the son of Remaliah. Because Aram hath counselled evil against thee, Ephraim also, and the son of Remaliah, saying: Let us go up against Judah, and vex it, and let us make a breach therein for us, and set up a king in the midst of it, even the son of Tabeel; thus saith the Lord :


 * It shall not stand, neither shall it come to pass.
 * For the head of Aram is Damascus,
 * And the head of Damascus is Rezin;
 * And within threescore and five years
 * Shall Ephraim be broken, that it be not a people;
 * And the head of Ephraim is Samaria,
 * And the head of Samaria is Remaliah's son.
 * If ye will not have faith, surely ye shall not be established.'

And the spoke again unto Ahaz, saying: 'Ask thee a sign of the  thy God: ask it either in the depth, or in the height above.' But Ahaz said: 'I will not ask, neither