Isaiah’s Vision of the Lord
1 In the year that sKing Uzziah died I tsaw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train1 of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him stood the seraphim. Each had usix wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one called to another and said:
u“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
4 And wthe foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and xthe house was filled with smoke. 5 And I said: “Woe is me! yFor I am lost; zfor 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 aKing, the Lord of hosts!”
6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 And he btouched 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
8 And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for cus?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.”
9 And he said, “Go, and say to this people:
d“‘Keep on hearing,1 but do not understand;
keep on seeing,2 but do not perceive.’
10 eMake the heart of this people fdull,3
and their ears heavy,
and blind their eyes;
glest they see with their eyes,
and hear with their ears,
and understand with their hearts,
and turn and be healed.”
11 Then I said, h“How long, O Lord?”
And he said:
“Until icities 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 jAnd though a tenth remain in it,
it will be burned4 again,
like a terebinth or an oak,
whose stump kremains
when it is felled.”
Give Thanks to the Lord
Of David.
1 bI give you thanks, O Lord, with my whole heart;
before cthe gods I sing your praise;
2 I bow down dtoward your eholy temple
and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness,
for you have exalted above all things
your name and your word.1
3 On the day I called, you answered me;
my strength of soul you increased.2
4 fAll the kings of the earth shall give you thanks, O Lord,
for they have heard the words of your mouth,
5 and they shall sing of gthe ways of the Lord,
for great is the glory of the Lord.
6 hFor though the Lord is high, he regards the lowly,
but the haughty he knows from afar.
7 iThough I walk in the midst of trouble,
you jpreserve my life;
you kstretch out your hand against the wrath of my enemies,
and your lright hand delivers me.
8 The Lord will mfulfill his purpose for me;
nyour steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever.
Do not forsake othe work of your hands.
12 So with yourselves, since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel in building up the church.
13 Therefore, one who speaks in a tongue should pray that he may interpret. 14 For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays but my mind is unfruitful. 15 What am I to do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will pray with my mind also; dI will sing praise with my spirit, but I will esing with my mind also. 16 Otherwise, if you give thanks with your spirit, how can anyone in the position of an outsider1 say f“Amen” to gyour thanksgiving when he does not know what you are saying? 17 For you may be giving thanks well enough, but the other person is not being built up. 18 I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. 19 Nevertheless, in church I would rather speak five words with my mind in order to instruct others, than ten thousand words in a tongue.
20 Brothers, hdo not be children in your thinking. iBe infants in evil, but in your thinking be jmature.
Jesus Calls the First Disciples
1 On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he was standing by uthe lake of Gennesaret, 2 vand he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were wwashing their nets. 3 Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And xhe sat down and taught the people from the boat. 4 And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, y“Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” 5 And Simon answered, “Master, zwe toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.” 6 And when they had done this, athey enclosed a large number of fish, and atheir nets were breaking. 7 They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. bAnd they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. 8 But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, c“Depart from me, for dI am a sinful man, O Lord.” 9 For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken, 10 and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.”1 11 And when they had brought their boats to land, ethey left everything and followed him.
