1In the year that King Uzziah died I then saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple. 2Above it stood the seraphim; each one had six wings; with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3And one cried to another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is Jehovah of Hosts; the whole earth full of His glory! 4And the doorposts shook at the voice of the one who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke. 5Then I said, Woe is me! for I am undone! 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, Jehovah of Hosts. 6Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from off the altar. 7And he applied it to my mouth and said, Lo, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away, and your sin is purged. 8And 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. 9And He said, Go, and tell this people, You listen to hear, but do not understand; you look to see, but do not perceive. 10Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn back, and be healed. 11Then I said, Lord, how long? And He answered, Until the cities have been smashed to ruins without inhabitant, and the houses without a man, and the land is left devastated, 12and until Jehovah has sent the men far away, and the desolation in the midst of the land is great. 13But yet in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return and be consumed like the terebinth and like the oak when it is cut down, whose stump remains. The holy seed is its stump.
Jamieson Fausset Brown Bible Commentary 1 VISION OF JEHOVAH IN HIS TEMPLE. (
Jes 6:1-
Jes 6:13)
In . . . year . . . Uzziah died--Either literal death, or civil when he ceased as a leper to exercise his functions as king [Chaldee], (
2.Chr 26:19-21). 754 B.C. [CALMET] 758 (Common Chronology). This is not the first beginning of Isaiah's prophecies, but his inauguration to a higher degree of the prophetic office:
Jes 6:9, &c., implies the tone of one who had already experience of the people's obstinacy.
Lord--here Adonai, Jehovah in
Jes 6:5; Jesus Christ is meant as speaking in
Jes 6:10, according to
Joh 12:41. Isaiah could only have "seen" the Son, not the divine essence (
Joh 1:18). The words in
Jes 6:10 are attributed by Paul (
Apg 28:25-
Apg 28:26) to the Holy Ghost. Thus the Trinity in unity is implied; as also by the thrice "Holy" (
Jes 6:3). Isaiah mentions the robes, temple, and seraphim, but not the form of God Himself. Whatever it was, it was different from the usual Shekinah: that was on the mercy seat, this on a throne; that a cloud and fire, of this no form is specified: over that were the cherubim, over this the seraphim; that had no clothing, this had a flowing robe and train.
2 stood--not necessarily the posture of standing; rather, were in attendance on Him [MAURER], hovering on expanded wings.
the--not in the Hebrew.
seraphim--nowhere else applied to God's attendant angels; but to the fiery flying (not winged, but rapidly moving) serpents, which bit the Israelites (
4.Mo 21:6), called so from the poisonous inflammation caused by their bites. Seraph is to burn; implying the burning zeal, dazzling brightness (
2.Kön 2:11;
2.Kön 6:17;
Hes 1:13;
Mt 28:3) and serpent-like rapidity of the seraphim in God's service. Perhaps Satan's form as a serpent (nachash) in his appearance to man has some connection with his original form as a seraph of light. The head of the serpent was the symbol of wisdom in Egypt (compare
4.Mo 21:8;
2.Kön 18:4). The seraphim, with six wings and one face, can hardly be identified with the cherubim, which had four wings (in the temple only two) and four faces (
Hes 1:5-
Hes 1:12). (But compare
Off 4:8). The "face" and "feet" imply a human form; something of a serpentine form (perhaps a basilisk's head, as in the temples of Thebes) may have been mixed with it: so the cherub was compounded of various animal forms. However, seraph may come from a root meaning "princely," applied in
Dan 10:13 to Michael [MAURER]; just as cherub comes from a root (changing m into b), meaning "noble."
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 (
2.Mo 3:6;
Hi 4:18;
Hi 15:15); two covered their feet, or rather the whole of the lower parts of their persons--a practice usual in the presence of Eastern monarchs, in token of reverence (compare
Hes 1:11, their bodies). Man's service a fortiori consists in reverent waiting on, still more than in active service for, God.
3 (
Off 4:8). The Trinity is implied (on "Lord," see on
Jes 6:1). God's holiness is the keynote of Isaiah's whole prophecies.
whole earth--the Hebrew more emphatically, the fulness of the whole earth is His glory (
Ps 24:1;
Ps 72:19).
4 posts of . . . door--rather, foundations of the thresholds.
house--temple.
smoke--the Shekinah cloud (
1.Kön 8:10;
Hes 10:4).
5 undone-- (
2.Mo 33:20). The same effect was produced on others by the presence of God (
Ri 6:22;
Ri 13:22;
Hi 42:5-
Hi 42:6;
Lk 5:8;
Off 1:17).
lips--appropriate to the context which describes the praises of the lips, sung in alternate responses (
2.Mo 15:20-
2.Mo 15:21;
Jes 6:3) by the seraphim: also appropriate to the office of speaking as the prophet of God, about to be committed to Isaiah (
Jes 6:9).
seen--not strictly Jehovah Himself (
Joh 1:18;
1.Tim 6:16), but the symbol of His presence.
Lord--Hebrew, "JEHOVAH."
6 unto me--The seraph had been in the temple, Isaiah outside of it.
live coal--literally, "a hot stone," used, as in some countries in our days, to roast meat with, for example, the meat of the sacrifices. Fire was a symbol of purification, as it takes the dross out of metals (
Mal 3:2-
Mal 3:3).
the altar--of burnt offering, in the court of the priests before the temple. The fire on it was at first kindled by God (
3.Mo 9:24), and was kept continually burning.
7 mouth . . . lips--(See on
Jes 6:5). The mouth was touched because it was the part to be used by the prophet when inaugurated. So "tongues of fire" rested on the disciples (
Apg 2:3-
Apg 2:4) when they were being set apart to speak in various languages of Jesus.
iniquity--conscious unworthiness of acting as God's messenger.
purged--literally, "covered," that is, expiated, not by any physical effect of fire to cleanse from sin, but in relation to the altar sacrifices, of which Messiah, who here commissions Isaiah, was in His death to be the antitype: it is implied hereby that it is only by sacrifice sin can be pardoned.
8 I . . . us--The change of number indicates the Trinity (compare
1.Mo 1:26;
1.Mo 11:7). Though not a sure argument for the doctrine, for the plural may indicate merely majesty, it accords with that truth proved elsewhere.
Whom . . . who--implying that few would be willing to bear the self-denial which the delivering of such an unwelcome message to the Jews would require on the part of the messenger (compare
1.Chr 29:5).
Here am I--prompt zeal, now that he has been specially qualified for it (
Jes 6:7; compare
1.Sam 3:10-11;
Apg 9:6).
9 Hear . . . indeed--Hebrew, "In hearing hear," that is, Though ye hear the prophet's warnings again and again, ye are doomed, because of your perverse will (
Joh 7:17), not to understand. Light enough is given in revelation to guide those sincerely seeking to know, in order that they may do, God's will; darkness enough is left to confound the wilfully blind (
Jes 43:8). So in Jesus' use of parables (
Mt 13:14).
see . . . indeed--rather, "though ye see again and again," yet, &c.
10 Make . . . fat-- (
Ps 119:17). "Render them the more hardened by thy warnings" [MAURER]. This effect is the fruit, not of the truth in itself, but of the corrupt state of their hearts, to which God here judicially gives them over (
Jes 63:17). GESENIUS takes the imperatives as futures. "Proclaim truths, the result of which proclamation will be their becoming the more hardened" (
Röm 1:28;
Eph 4:18); but this does not so well as the former set forth God as designedly giving up sinners to judicial hardening (
Röm 11:8;
2.Thes 2:11). In the first member of the sentence, the order is, the heart, ears, eyes; in the latter, the reverse order, the eyes, ears, heart. It is from the heart that corruption flows into the ears and eyes (
Markus 7:21-
Markus 7:22); but through the eyes and ears healing reaches the heart (
Röm 10:17), [BENGEL]. (
Jer 5:21;
Hes 12:2;
Sach 7:11;
Apg 7:57;
2.Tim 4:4). In
Mt 13:15, the words are quoted in the indicative, "is waxed gross" (so the Septuagint), not the imperative, "make fat"; God's word as to the future is as certain as if it were already fulfilled. To see with one's eyes will not convince a will that is opposed to the truth (compare
Joh 11:45-
Joh 11:46;
Joh 12:10-
Joh 12:11). "One must love divine things in order to understand them" [PASCAL].
be healed--of their spiritual malady, sin (
Jes 1:6;
Ps 103:3;
Jer 17:14).
11 how long--will this wretched condition of the nation being hardened to its destruction continue?
until-- (
Jes 5:9) --fulfilled primarily at the Babylonish captivity, and more fully at the dispersion under the Roman Titus.
12 (
2.Kön 25:21).
forsaking--abandonment of dwellings by their inhabitants (
Jer 4:29).
13 and it shall return, and . . . be eaten--Rather, "but it shall be again given over to be consumed": if even a tenth survive the first destruction, it shall be destroyed by a second (
Jes 5:25;
Hes 5:1-
Hes 5:5,
Hes 5:12), [MAURER and HORSLEY]. In English Version, "return" refers to the poor remnant left in the land at the Babylonish captivity (
2.Kön 24:14;
2.Kön 25:12), which afterwards fled to Egypt in fear (
2.Kön 25:26), and subsequently returned thence along with others who had fled to Moab and Edom (
Jer 40:11-
Jer 40:12), and suffered under further divine judgments.
tell--rather, "terebinth" or "turpentine tree" (
Jes 1:29).
substance . . . when . . . cast . . . leaves--rather, "As a terebinth or oak in which, when they are cast down (not 'cast their leaves,'
Hi 14:7), the trunk or stock remains, so the holy seed (
Esr 9:2) shall be the stock of that land." The seeds of vitality still exist in both the land and the scattered people of Judea, waiting for the returning spring of God's favor (
Röm 11:5,
Röm 11:23-
Röm 11:29). According to Isaiah, not all Israel, but the elect remnant alone, is destined to salvation. God shows unchangeable severity towards sin, but covenant faithfulness in preserving a remnant, and to it Isaiah bequeaths the prophetic legacy of the second part of his book (the fortieth through sixty-sixth chapters).
In the Assyrian inscriptions the name of Rezin, king of Damascus, is found among the tributaries of Tiglath-pileser, of whose reign the annals of seventeen years have been deciphered. For the historical facts in this chapter, compare 2Ki. 15:37-16:9. Rezin of Syria and Pekah of Israel, as confederates, advanced against Jerusalem. In the first campaign they "smote Ahaz with a great slaughter" (
2.Chr 28:5). Their object was probably to unite the three kingdoms against Assyria. Egypt seems to have favored the plan, so as to interpose these confederate kingdoms between her own frontier and Assyria (compare
Jes 7:18, "Egypt"; and
2.Kön 17:4, Hoshea's league with Egypt). Rezin and Pekah may have perceived Ahaz' inclination towards Assyria rather than towards their own confederacy; this and the old feud between Israel and Judah (
1.Kön 12:16) occasioned their invasion of Judah. Ahaz, at the second inroad of his enemies (compare 2Ch. 28:1-26 and
2.Kön 15:37, with
Jes 16:5), smarting under his former defeat, applied to Tiglath-pileser, in spite of Isaiah's warning in this chapter, that he should rather rely on God; that king accordingly attacked Damascus, and slew Rezin (
2.Kön 16:9); and probably it was at the same time that he carried away part of Israel captive (
2.Kön 15:29), unless there were two assaults on Pekah--that in
2.Kön 15:29, the earlier, and that in which Tiglath helped Ahaz subsequently [G. V. SMITH]. Ahaz was saved at the sacrifice of Judah's independence and the payment of a large tribute, which continued till the overthrow of Sennacherib under Hezekiah (
Jes 37:37;
2.Kön 16:8,
2.Kön 16:17-18;
2.Chr 28:20). Ahaz' reign began about 741 B.C., and Pekah was slain in 738 [WINER].