The Call of the Prophet Isaiah. Isa. 6:1-13
6 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. 2 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. 3 And one called to another and said:
“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory!”
4 And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. 5 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!”
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 touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”
8 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.” 9 And he said, “Go, and say to this people:
“ ‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand;
keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’
10 Make the heart of this people dull,
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 burned again,
like a terebinth or an oak,
whose stump remains
when it is felled.”
The holy seed is its stump. ESV
6 1 Καὶ ἐγένετο τοῦ ἐνιαυτοῦ οὗ ἀπέθανεν Ὀζείας ὁ βασιλεὺς εἶδον τὸν κύριον καθήμενον ἐπὶ θρόνου ὑψηλοῦ καὶ ἐπηρμένου, καὶ πλήρης ὁ οἶκος τῆς δόξης αὐτοῦ. 2 καὶ σεραφεὶμ εἱστήκεισαν κύκλῳ αὐτοῦ, ἓξ πτέρυγες τῷ ἑνί, καὶ ἓξ πτέρυγες τῷ ἑνί· καὶ ταῖς μὲν δυσὶν κατεκάλυπτον τὸ πρόσωπον, ταῖς δὲ δυσὶν κατεκάλυπτον τοὺς πόδας, καὶ ταῖς δυσὶν ἐπέταντο. 3 καὶ ἐκέκραγεν ἕτερος πρὸς τὸν ἕτερον καὶ ἔλεγον Ἅγιος ἅγιος ἅγιος Κύριος σαβαώθ, πλήρης πᾶσα ἡ γῆ τῆς δόξης αὐτοῦ. 4 καὶ ἐπήρθη τὸ ὑπέρθυρον ἀπὸ τῆς φωνῆς ἧς ἐκέκραγον, καὶ ὁ οἶκος ἐνεπλήσθη καπνοῦ. 5 καὶ εἶπον Ὢ τάλας ἐγώ, ὅτι κατανένυγμαι, ὅτι ἄνθρωπος ὢν καὶ ἀκάθαρτα χείλη ἔχων ἐν μέσῳ λαοῦ ἀκάθαρτα χείλη ἔχοντος ἐγὼ οἰκῶ, καὶ τὸν βασιλέα Κύριον σαβαὼθ εἶδον τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς μου. 6 καὶ ἀπεστάλη πρὸς μὲ ἓν τῶν σεραφείν, καὶ ἐν τῇ χειρὶ εἶχεν ἄνθρακα ὃν τῇ λαβίδι ἔλαβεν ἀπὸ τοῦ θυσιαστηρίου, 7 καὶ ἥψατο τοῦ στόματός μου καὶ εἶπεν Ἰδοὺ ἥψατο τοῦτο τῶν χειλέων σου, καὶ ἀφελεῖ τὰς ἀνομίας σου, καὶ τὰς ἁμαρτίας σου περικαθαριεῖ. 8 καὶ ἤκουσα τῆς φωνῆς Κυρίου λέγοντος Τίνα ἀποστείλω, καὶ τίς πορεύσεται πρὸς τὸν λαὸν τοῦτον; καὶ εἶπα Ἰδού εἰμι ἐγώ· ἀπόστειλόν με. 9 καὶ εἶπεν Πορεύθητι καὶ εἰπὸν τῷ λαῷ τούτῳ Ἀκοῇ ἀκούσετε καὶ οὐ μὴ συνῆτε, καὶ βλέποντες βλέψετε καὶ οὐ μὴ ἴδητε. 10 ἐπαχύνθη γὰρ ἡ καρδία τοῦ λαοῦ τούτου, καὶ τοῖς ὠσὶν αὐτῶν βαρέως ἤκουσαν καὶ τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς ἐκάμμυσαν, μή ποτε ἴδωσιν τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς καὶ τοῖς ὠσὶν ἀκούσωσιν, καὶ τῇ καρδίᾳ συνῶσιν καὶ ἐπιστρέψωσιν, καὶ ἰάσομαι αὐτούς. 11 καὶ εἶπα Ἕως πότε, Κύριε; καὶ εἶπεν Ἕως ἂν ἐρημωθῶσιν πόλεις παρὰ τὸ μὴ κατοικεῖσθαι, καὶ οἶκοι παρὰ τὸ μὴ εἶναι ἀνθρώπους, καὶ ἡ γῆ καταλειφθήσεται ἔρημος. 12 καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα μακρυνεῖ ὁ θεὸς τοὺς ἀνθρώπους, καὶ οἱ καταλειφθέντες πληθυνθήσονται ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, 13 καὶ ἔτι ἐπʼ αὐτῆς ἐστιν τὸ ἐπιδέκατον, καὶ πάλιν ἔσται εἰς προνομήν, ὡς τερέβινθος καὶ ὡς βάλανος ὅταν ἐκπέσῃ ἐκ τῆς θήκης αὐτῆς.
Isaiah is outside, near the altar in front of the temple. The doors are supposed to open, and the veil hiding the Holy of Holies to be withdrawn, unfolding to his view a vision of God represented as an Eastern monarch, attended by seraphim as His ministers of state (
Uzziah is generally supposed to have died in 739. This is a critical juncture in history. In 740–738 Assyrian king Tiglath- Pileser III made his first campaign into the west. This is the beginning of a serious military threat that will eventually bring about the downfall of the northern kingdom, Israel, the destruction of the capital city of Samaria (along with many other cities of Israel and Judah) and the deportation of large segments of the population. The Assyrians are on the brink of establishing the empire that will dominate the ancient Near East for over a century.
This vision is explained,
King Uzziah died after, not before, Isaiah’s call, as 1:1 makes clear. If his death has significance apart from its date, it is that he died a leper, for flouting God’s holiness when ‘his heart was lifted up’ (
Now he was dead, and questions of possible instability and anxieties about the future would naturally crowd into the hearts of the people. Isaiah had a vision of a throne that can never end, with someone seated on it whose glory will someday fill the new heaven and new earth.
In … year … Uzziah died—Either literal death, or civil when he ceased as a leper to exercise his functions as king
Isaiah is somehow in the temple and yet seeing beyond it. His vision of God as one whose robe fills the temple (6:1) is quite important for the book. It locates something of God’s presence in Zion, the mount of the temple, underlining that God will be at work in and through Zion. But if only the train of God’s robe fills the temple, then he is bigger than the temple, beyond it, not contained by it.
The word translated “train” elsewhere (and probably here) refers to the hem. It is the richly decorated and distinctive border around the high priestly robe (see comments on
The prophet concentrates not on the throne or on the Lord seated upon it, but on “the train of the robe” as it fills the temple. The temple is filled with the glorious presence of the Lord. He touches the earth in his power and glory, and yet the earth and the earthly temple cannot contain him.
Lord—here Adonai, Jehovah in
Isaiah did not see God on the ark of the covenant, but on a throne. Almost 150 years later Ezekiel had a similar experience. He envisioned God being borne along on a great chariot throne by living creatures called cherubim (
The Lord’s long robe speaks of His royalty and majesty
The word glory is also important to the message of Isaiah. It signifies the majesty and splendor of the presence of Yahweh. Over against all the wealth of the rich and the royal courts of earthly kings is the King of glory whose judgment will reduce human kingdoms and frustrate human plans. When the King of glory establishes his kingdom and extends it from shore to shore, the fullness of his glory will become evident. The seraphim already see the whole earth full of his glory.
stood—not necessarily the posture of standing; rather, were in attendance on Him [MAURER], hovering on expanded wings.
the—not in the Hebrew.
Here these winged creatures are man-like (his feet; and his hand in v 6), but the point of the description is to re-emphasize the holiness of God, in whose presence even the dazzling and the sinless are overwhelmed, fit neither to see him nor be seen, yet swift to serve
(2) and tireless to praise him (3).
In Ezekiel’s vision the four living creatures had: four different faces (a human face; a face of a lion; a face of an ox; a face of an eagle) and four wings. They had human hands under their wings on their four sides.
5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: 7 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: 8 And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. 9 Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: 10 That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of ethings in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; 11 And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
twain—Two wings alone of the six were kept ready for instant flight in God’s service; two veiled their faces as unworthy to look on the holy God, or pry into His secret counsels which they fulfilled (
A. W. Tozer captured that infinite gulf between the Lord and all creation:
We must not think of God as the highest in an ascending order of beings, starting with the single cell, and going on up from the fish to the bird to the animal to man to angel to cherub to God. God is as high above an archangel as above a caterpillar, for the gulf that separates the archangel from the caterpillar is but finite, while the gulf between God and the archangel is infinite. (Knowledge of the Holy, 70)
whole earth—the Hebrew more emphatically, the fulness of the whole earth is His glory (
The seraphim also cry aloud that the whole earth is filled with God’s glory (
In calling to one another the seraphs, whose number is not given, were proclaiming that the LORD Almighty is holy. The threefold repetition of the word holy suggests supreme or complete holiness.
whole earth—the Hebrew more emphatically, the fulness of the whole earth is His glory (
The thresholds (cf.
A glimpse of heavenly glory is enough to convince us that all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.
It is fitting that a seraph (perhaps meaning a “burning one”) touched Isaiah’s lips with a hot coal … from the altar, either the altar of burnt offering, on which a fire was always burning (
mouth … lips—(See on
13 ὁ δὲ τελώνης μακρόθεν ἑστὼς οὐκ ἤθελεν οὐδὲ τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς ἐπᾶραι εἰς τὸν οὐρανόν, ἀλλʼ ἔτυπτε τὸ στῆθος αὐτοῦ λέγων· Ὁ θεός, ἱλάσθητί μοι τῷ ἁμαρτωλῷ.
The word “Us” in reference to God hints at the Trinity (cf. “Us” in
He heard the Lord calling, “Who should I send? Who will go for us?” The word us clearly has a trinitarian basis, for the dual question parallels “I” (“Who should I send?”) with “us” (“Who will go for us?”). Only the triune God can speak like this.
“One must love divine things in order to understand them” [PASCAL].
The prophet’s role was to deliver the message regardless of whether there was any response or not. If the message did not result in response, it would at least establish clearly the people’s guilt.
In the New Testament this passage is quoted four times to explain why Jesus used parables to teach the people. In effect, Jesus said he used parables so that the people will not understand and turn and be healed. It is a powerful weeding-out process.
Isaiah 6:9–10
