Isaiah 6
13 verses
Isaiah's throne-room vision stands as the most foundational commissioning narrative in the Old Testament, establishing the prophet's calling and the theological architecture of his entire ministry. In the year King Uzziah died, Isaiah encounters the seraph-guarded throne of YHWH, surrounded by angelic beings proclaiming the holiness of God that fills all the earth, evoking the theophanic majesty that frames all subsequent revelation. The prophet's response—recognizing his unclean lips in contrast to the holiness he witnesses—demonstrates the transformative encounter with divine transcendence that authentic prophecy requires. The seraph's cleansing of Isaiah's lips with a coal from the divine altar serves as both judgment and equipping, purifying him for the proclamation of God's word to a spiritually deaf and blind people. God's commission explicitly states that the people will not understand, their hearts will be calloused, and they will not be healed—yet Isaiah accepts the call to continue proclaiming until the land is desolate and the remnant remains. This chapter establishes that true prophecy requires personal transformation through encounter with divine holiness and acceptance of the painful reality that God's word often meets resistance. The theology embedded in Isaiah's commissioning—holiness, judgment, remnant, and persistent proclamation despite futility—becomes the hermeneutical key for understanding Isaiah's entire prophecy.
VERSES IN THIS CHAPTER
1
In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.
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2
Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.
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3
And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.
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4
And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.
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5
Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because 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, the Lord of hosts.
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6
Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar:
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7
And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.
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8
Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.
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9
And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not.
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10
Make 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 heart, and convert, and be healed.
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11
Then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate,
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12
And the Lord have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land.
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13
But yet in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return, and shall be eaten: as a teil tree, and as an oak, whose substance is in them, when they cast their leaves: so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof.
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