Ad Fontes #2

From Lutheran Service Book’s Daily Lectionary for November 30:

‘In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train 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!”

And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.’ (Isaiah 6:1-4)

Or, to put it another way (especially if you’re Martin Luther assembling his Deutsche Messe in the 1520s):

Isaiah, mighty seer, in days of old
The Lord of all in Spirit did behold
High on a lofty throne, in splendor bright,
With robes that filled the temple courts with light.
Above the throne were flaming seraphim,
Six wings had they, these messengers of Him.
With two they veiled their faces, as was right,
With two they humbly hid their feet from sight,
And with the other two aloft they soared,
One to the other called and praised the Lord:
“Holy is God, the Lord of Sabaoth!
Holy is God, the Lord of Sabaoth!
Holy is God, the Lord of Sabaoth!
His glory fills the heavens and the earth!”
The beams and lintels trembled at the cry,
And clouds of smoke enwrapped the throne on high.

(English translation from The Lutheran Hymnal, 1941, alt.)