Isaiah 6

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Isaiah 6:8

God then asked for a volunteer to serve Him, evidently among any present in the throne room (cf. 1 Kings 22:19-20). "Us" is a plural, and the plural in Hebrew (but in no other Semitic languages) adds intensification (cf. Genesis 1:26; Genesis 11:7; 1 Kings 22:19-23). It only hints at plurality within the Godhead, but the New Testament makes that plurality clear (cf. John 12:41; Acts 28:25). This may be a plural of majesty, or the Lord may have meant Himself, the seraphim, and the heavenly... read more

Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Isaiah 6:9

God sent Isaiah back to the people among whom he lived, a people with unclean lips (Isaiah 6:5). He was to tell them to listen and to look at the revelations he brought from God, but they would not fully understand what the prophet meant (cf. Deuteronomy 29:2-4).Does God really want to prevent people from understanding, repenting, and being healed? This verse and the next are strongly ironic. We could paraphrase Isaiah’s message to the Israelites as follow: "Go ahead; be stubborn!" [Note: The... read more

Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Isaiah 6:9-13

B. The prophet’s commission 6:9-13The Lord proceeded to give Isaiah specific instructions about what He wanted him to do and what the prophet could expect regarding his ministry (Isaiah 6:9-10), his historic-political situation (Isaiah 6:11-12), and his nation’s survival (Isaiah 6:13). read more

Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Isaiah 6:10

The effect of Isaiah’s preaching would not be that the people would repent, but that they would harden their hearts against his messages (cf. Matthew 13:14-15; Mark 4:10-12; Luke 8:10; John 12:39-41; Acts 28:26-27; Romans 11:8).The Apostle John quoted this verse (and Isaiah 53:1) in reference to the Jews’ inability in Jesus’ day to believe on Him (John 12:40). John then added, "These things Isaiah said, because he saw His glory, and he spoke of Him" (John 12:41). Isaiah may or may not have... read more

Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Isaiah 6:11-12

The news that the Israelites would harden their hearts against Isaiah’s message undoubtedly disappointed the prophet. So he asked the Lord how long he should continue to preach (cf. Isaiah 6:9) and how long the Israelites would be unresponsive (cf. Isaiah 6:10). [Note: Delitzsch, 1:201; Motyer, p. 79; Grogan, p. 58.] The Lord did not give him a certain number of years but implied that he should continue preaching until the full extent of God’s judgment on the people because of their prolonged... read more

Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Isaiah 6:13

Yet there was hope. A tenth of the nation would survive. The Lord would take His tithe from among the people. But the land would again face judgment. This tenth probably refers to the remnant left in the land when Nebuchadnezzar took the majority captive to Babylon (2 Kings 24:14). When the nation was thoroughly cut down and burned, there would be a little spiritual life in it that would eventually sprout. This happened when a small number of godly exiles under the leadership of Zerubbabel,... read more

John Dummelow

John Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible - Isaiah 6:1-13

The Prophet’s CallThis c., which recounts the prophet’s call and commission, would stand first in a chronological arrangement of the book. The opening words remind us of the vision of Micaiah (1 Kings 22:19), and we should compare the visions of Jeremiah and Ezekiel which inaugurated their prophetic activity. In St. John’s vision (Revelation 4) the same anthem, ’Holy, holy, holy,’ is sung by the six-winged living creatures round about the throne. Isaiah’s vision foreshadows such leading... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Isaiah 6:1

VI.(1) In the year that king Uzziah died.—Probably before his death. Had it been after it, the first year of king Jotham would have been the more natural formula. The chapter gives us the narrative of the solemn call of Isaiah to the office of a prophet. It does not follow that it was written at that time, and we may even believe that, if the prophet were the editor of his own discourses, he may have designedly placed the narrative in this position that men might see what he himself saw, that... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Isaiah 6:2

(2) Above it stood the seraphims . . .—It is noticeable that this is the only passage in which the seraphim are mentioned as part of the host of heaven. In Numbers 21:6, the word (the primary meaning of which is the burning ones) occurs as denoting the fiery serpents that attacked the people in the wilderness. Probably the brazen serpent which Hezekiah afterwards destroyed (2 Kings 18:4) had preserved the name and its significance as denoting the instruments of the fiery judgments of Jehovah.... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Isaiah 6:3

(3) And one cried unto another.—So in Psalms 29:9, which, as describing a thunderstorm, favours the suggestion that the lightnings were thought of as the symbols of the fiery seraphim, we read, “in his temple doth every one say, Glory.” The threefold repetition, familiar as the Trisagion of the Church’s worship, and reproduced in Revelation 4:8 (where “Lord God Almighty” appears as the equivalent of Jehovah Sabaoth), may represent either the mode of utterance, first antiphonal, and then in full... read more

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Isaiah 6:8

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Isaiah 6:9

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Isaiah 6:9-13

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Isaiah 6:10

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Isaiah 6:11-12

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Isaiah 6:13

John Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible - Isaiah 6:1-13

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Isaiah 6:1

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Isaiah 6:2

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Isaiah 6:3

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