• Isaiah 6:1-7:6;Isaiah 9:5-6

Description

The Haftorah (Haftarah/Haphtara) means "taking leave" or "parting". It is traditional to read a selection of related text from the Nevi'im ("Prophets") after you finish your Torah reading.

Isaiah 6–7:6 (Listen)

Isaiah’s Vision of the Lord

6:1 In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train1 of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said:

  “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts;
  the whole earth is full of his glory!”2

And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!”

Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”

Isaiah’s Commission from the Lord

And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.” And he said, “Go, and say to this people:

  “‘Keep on hearing,3 but do not understand;
  keep on seeing,4 but do not perceive.’
10   Make the heart of this people dull,5
    and their ears heavy,
    and blind their eyes;
  lest they see with their eyes,
    and hear with their ears,
  and understand with their hearts,
    and turn and be healed.”
11   Then I said, “How long, O Lord?”
  And he said:
  “Until cities lie waste
    without inhabitant,
  and houses without people,
    and the land is a desolate waste,
12   and the LORD removes people far away,
    and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land.
13   And though a tenth remain in it,
    it will be burned6 again,
  like a terebinth or an oak,
    whose stump remains
    when it is felled.”
  The holy seed7 is its stump.

Isaiah Sent to King Ahaz

7:1 In the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, son of Uzziah, king of Judah, Rezin the king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah the king of Israel came up to Jerusalem to wage war against it, but could not yet mount an attack against it. When the house of David was told, “Syria is in league with8 Ephraim,” the heart of Ahaz9 and the heart of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind.

And the LORD said to Isaiah, “Go out to meet Ahaz, you and Shear-jashub10 your son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the Washer’s Field. And say to him, ‘Be careful, be quiet, do not fear, and do not let your heart be faint because of these two smoldering stumps of firebrands, at the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria and the son of Remaliah. Because Syria, with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah, has devised evil against you, saying, “Let us go up against Judah and terrify it, and let us conquer it11 for ourselves, and set up the son of Tabeel as king in the midst of it,”

Footnotes

[1] 6:1 Or hem
[2] 6:3 Or may his glory fill the whole earth
[3] 6:9 Or Hear indeed
[4] 6:9 Or see indeed
[5] 6:10 Hebrew fat
[6] 6:13 Or purged
[7] 6:13 Or offspring
[8] 7:2 Hebrew Syria has rested upon
[9] 7:2 Hebrew his heart
[10] 7:3 Shear-jashub means A remnant shall return
[11] 7:6 Hebrew let us split it open

(ESV)

Isaiah 9:5–6 (Listen)

  For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult
    and every garment rolled in blood
    will be burned as fuel for the fire.
  For to us a child is born,
    to us a son is given;
  and the government shall be upon1 his shoulder,
    and his name shall be called2
  Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Footnotes

[1] 9:6 Or is upon
[2] 9:6 Or is called

(ESV)