Isaiah 6

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Isaiah 6:4

(4) The posts of the door.—Better, the foundations of the threshold. The words seem to point to the prophet’s position as in front of the Holy of holies.The house was filled with smoke.—The vision had its prototype in “the smoke as of a furnace” on Sinai (Exodus 19:18), in the glory-cloud of 1 Kings 8:10, and possibly in its lurid fire-lit darkness represented the wrath of Jehovah, as the clear brightness of the throne did His love. So in Revelation 15:8, the “smoke from the glory of God”... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Isaiah 6:5

(5) Then said I, Woe is me.—The cry of the prophet expresses the normal result of man’s consciousness of contact with God. So Moses “hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God” (Exodus 3:6). So Job “abhorred himself and repented in dust and ashes” (Job 42:6). So Peter fell down at his Lord’s feet, and cried, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord” (Luke 5:8). Man at such a time feels his nothingness in the presence of the Eternal, his guilt in the presence of the All-holy. No man... read more

Charles John Ellicott

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

(6) Then flew one of the seraphims.—In presenting the vision to our mind’s eye we have to think of the bright seraph form, glowing as with fire, and with wings like the lightning-flash, leaving his station above the throne, and coming to where the prophet stood in speechless terror. The altar from which he took the “live coal “—literally, stone, and interpreted by some critics of the stones of which the altar was constructed—is commonly thought of as belonging, like that of Revelation 8:5;... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Isaiah 6:7

(7) And he laid it upon my mouth.—So Jehovah “touched the mouth” of Isaiah’s great successor (Jeremiah 1:9); but not in that case with a “coal from the altar.” That prophet, like Moses (Exodus 4:10), had felt only or chiefly the want of power (“Alas! I cannot speak), and power was given him. Isaiah desired purity, and his prayer also was answered.Thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.—The clauses express the two elements of the great change which men, according to their varying... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Isaiah 6:8

(8) Also I heard the voice of the Lord.—The work of cleansing has made the prophet one of the heavenly brotherhood. He is as an angel called to an angel’s work. (Comp. Judges 2:1; Judges 5:23; Malachi 3:1.) He had before seen the glory of Jehovah, and had been overwhelmed with terror. Now he hears His voice (John 10:4), and it rouses him to self-consecration and activity.Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?—The union of the singular and plural in the same sentence is significant. The... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Isaiah 6:9

(9) Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not.—No harder task, it may be, was ever given to man. Ardent dreams of reformation and revival, the nation renewing its strength like the eagle, were scattered to the winds; and he had to face the prospect of a fruitless labour, of feeling that he did but increase the evil against which he strove. It was the very opposite mission of that to which St. Paul was sent, to “open men’s eyes, and turn them from darkness to light” (Acts... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Isaiah 6:10

(10) Make the heart of this people fat.—The thought is the same as that of the “hardening” of Pharaoh’s heart (Exodus 8:19; Exodus 9:34, &c) and that of Sihon (Deuteronomy 2:30). It implies the reckless headstrong will which defies restraint and warnings. So the poets of Greece, in their thoughts as to the Divine government of the world, recognised the truth that there is a judicial blindness and, as it were, insanity of will that comes as the consequence of sinful deeds ( Æsch. Agam.... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Isaiah 6:11

(11) Lord, how long?—The prophet asks the question which is ever on the lips of those who are brought face to face with the problems of the world, with the great mystery of evil, sin permitted to work out fresh evil as its punishment, and yet remaining evil. How long shall all this last? So a later prophet, towards the close of the seventy years of exile, cried once again, “How long?” (Daniel 8:13). So the cry, “How long, O Lord, dost thou not judge?” came from the souls beneath the altar... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Isaiah 6:12

(12) And the Lord have removed men far away.—The words point to the policy of deportation adopted by the Assyrian kings. From the first hour of Isaiah’s call the thought of an exile and a return from exile was the key-note of his teaching, and of that thought thus given in germ, his whole after-work was but a development, the horizon of his vision expanding and taking in the form of another empire than the Assyrian as the instrument of punishment.And there be a great forsaking.—Better, great... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Isaiah 6:13

(13) But yet in it shall be a tenth . . .—Better, And though there should be a tenth in it, yet this shall be again devoured (with fire). What the prophet is led to expect is a series of successive chastisements sifting the people, till the remnant of the chosen ones alone is left. (Comp. the same thought under a different imagery in Ezekiel 5:12 : Zechariah 13:8-9.) The “tenth” is taken, as in Leviticus 27:30, for an ideally consecrated portion.As a teil tree.—Better, terebinth; and for “when... read more

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Isaiah 6:4

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Isaiah 6:5

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

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Isaiah 6:7

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Isaiah 6:8

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Isaiah 6:9

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Isaiah 6:10

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Isaiah 6:11

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Isaiah 6:12

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Isaiah 6:13

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