Isaiah 6:3-13

3 And the one called to the other and said, "Holy, holy, holy [is] Yahweh of hosts! The {whole earth is full of his glory}."

4 And the pivots of the thresholds shook from the sound of those who called, and the house was filled [with] smoke.

5 And I said, "Woe to me! For I am destroyed! For I [am] a man {of unclean lips}, and I [am] living among a people {of unclean lips}, for my eyes have seen the king, Yahweh of hosts!"

6 Then one of the seraphs flew to me, and in his hand [was] a hot coal he had taken from the altar with tongs.

7 And he touched my mouth, and he said, "Look! This has touched your lips and has removed your guilt, and your sin is annulled."

8 Then I heard [the] voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And I said, "I [am] here! Send me!"

9 And he said, "Go and say to this people, 'Keep on listening and do not comprehend! And keep on looking and do not understand!'

10 Make the heart of this people insensitive, and make its ears unresponsive, and shut its eyes so that it may not look with its eyes and listen with its ears and comprehend [with] its mind and turn back, and it may be healed [for] him."

11 Then I said, "Until when, Lord?" And he said, "Until [the] cities lie wasted without inhabitant, and houses without people, and the land is ruined [and] a waste,

12 and Yahweh sends the people far away, and the abandonment is great in the midst of the land.

13 And {even if only a tenth part remain}, {again she will be destroyed} like [a] terebinth or like [an] oak, which although felled, a tree stump [remains] in them. [The] seed of holiness [will be] her tree stump."

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Isaiah 6:3-13 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO ISAIAH 6

This chapter contains a vision of the glory and majesty of Christ, the mission and commission of the prophet, and the destruction of the Jews. In the vision may be observed the time of it, and the object seen; who is described by the throne on which he sat, Isa 6:1 and by his ministers about him; and these, by their name, by their situation, by their wings and the use of them, and by their employment, Isa 6:2,3 and by the effects their crying to one another had upon the place where they were, Isa 6:4 and next follows the effect the whole vision had on the prophet, which threw him into great distress of mind; and the relief he had by one of the seraphim, and the manner of it, Isa 6:6,7 upon which a question being put, concerning sending some person, the prophet makes answer, expressing his readiness to go, Isa 6:8 when a commission is given him, and the message he is sent with is declared, Isa 6:9,10 whereupon he asks how long it would be the case of the Jews mentioned in the message he was sent with; and he is told it would continue until the utter destruction of them, Isa 6:11,12 and yet, for the comfort of him and other saints, it is intimated that there would be a remnant among them, according to the election of grace, Isa 6:13.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Footnotes 7

[a]. Or "temple"
[b]. Or "silenced"
[c]. Literally "unclean of lips"
[d]. With an emphatic sense: "in the very heart and midst of"
[e]. Literally "unclean of lips"
[f]. Literally "still in her a tenth"
[g]. Literally "and she will again and she will be to burn"