Isaiah 6:5-13

5 And I said, Woe unto 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 mine eyes have seen the King, Jehovah of hosts.

6 And one of the seraphim flew unto me, and he had in his hand a glowing coal, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar;

7 and he made it touch my mouth, and said, Behold, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin expiated.

8 And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? And I said, Here am I; send me.

9 And he said, Go; and thou shalt say unto this people, Hearing ye shall hear and shall not understand, and seeing ye shall see and shall not perceive.

10 Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and blind their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and be converted, and healed.

11 And I said, Lord, how long? And he said, Until the cities be wasted, without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land become an utter desolation,

12 and Jehovah have removed men far away, and the solitude be great in the midst of the land.

13 But a tenth part shall still be therein, and it shall return and be eaten; as the terebinth and as the oak whose trunk [remaineth] after the felling: the holy seed shall be the trunk thereof.

Isaiah 6:5-13 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.

Footnotes

• [a]. The emphasis is rather on 'send' than on 'me.'
• [b]. Or 'Hearing, hear ... and seeing, see ...'
• [c]. Or 'know:' see ch. 41.20; 2Kings 4.9.
• [d]. Or 'infatuate,' as ch. 29.9; lit. 'smear.'
• [e]. Adamah, 'soil:' as Deut. 26.2; in ver. 12 it is erets, 'the earth:' see 1Sam. 2.8.
• [f]. Or 'abandonment.'
• [g]. Or 'and it shall be eaten up again.'