And the Lord have removed ... - The land shall be given up to desolation. The men - the strength of the nation - shall be taken to a distant land.And there be a great forsaking - A great desolation; the cities and dwellings shall be abandoned by the inhabitants; compare Isaiah 17:2; Jeremiah 4:29; Zephaniah 2:4. read more
But yet ... - The main idea in this verse is plain, though there is much difficulty in the explanation of the particular phrases. The leading thought is, that the land should not be “utterly” and finally abandoned. There would be the remains of life - as in an oak or terebinth tree when the tree has fallen; compare the notes at Isaiah 11:1.A tenth - That is, a tenth of the inhabitants, or a very small part. Amidst the general desolation, a small part should be preserved. This was accomplished... read more
A.M. 3246. B.C. 758. In this chapter we have the prophet’s fourth discourse, containing an account of a glorious vision wherewith he was favoured; the design of which was, 1st, To exhibit a figure of the kingdom of the Son of God, hereafter to be manifested in the world; and, 2d, To foretell the future blindness and hardness of heart of the greatest part of the Jewish nation. We have (1,) A symbolical manifestation of the glory of the God of Israel, Isaiah 6:1-4 . (2,) The... read more
Isaiah 6:1. In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord “As this vision,” says Bishop Lowth, “seems to contain a solemn designation of Isaiah to the prophetical office, it is by most interpreters thought to be the first in order of his prophecies. But this perhaps may not be so: for Isaiah is said, in the general title of his prophecies, to have prophesied in the time of Uzziah, whose acts, first and last, he wrote, (2 Chronicles 26:22,) and the phrase, in the year when Uzziah died, ... read more
Isaiah 6:2. Above it Or, rather, above him, as ממעל לו might be better rendered; stood the seraphim As ministers attending upon their Lord, and waiting to receive and execute his commands. The word seraphim, which, like cherubim, is plural, signifies burning, or flaming ones, from the verb שׂר Š, seraph, to burn or flame. The expression here means spiritual beings, qui a claritate et aspectus splendore, quasi flammantes et ignei visi sunt, “who, from their brightness,... read more
Isaiah 6:3. And one cried unto another Divided into two choirs, they sung responsively one to the other; and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts “God’s holiness,” says Lowth, “or the superlative purity of his nature, implies in it all the rest of his attributes, especially his justice and mercy, which are dispensed by the most exact rules of rectitude. The Christian Church has always thought the doctrine of the Trinity to be implied in this threefold repetition of holy: as it... read more
Isaiah 6:4. And the posts of the door moved Together with the door itself. Such violent motions were commonly tokens of God’s anger. And here, it seems, this concussion of the temple was intended to signify God’s displeasure against his people for their sins, and to be a token of its destruction, by the Babylonians first, and afterward by the Romans; and the house was filled with smoke Which elsewhere is a token of God’s presence and acceptance, but here, of his anger; and may be... read more
Isaiah 6:5. Then said I, &c. The second part of this vision begins here, containing the sanctification of the prophet, in order to his undertaking of a great prophetical office, and showing, 1st, his state of mind upon the sight of the preceding illustrious vision: his consternation under a sense of his great unworthiness; and, 2d, describing the singular mode of his sanctification Wo is me, for I am undone, &c. That is, if God deal with me in strict justice. For I have made... read more
Isaiah 6:6-7. Then flew one of the seraphim unto me By God’s command; having a live coal in his hand Both a token and an instrument of purification, as the next verse explains it; which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar Of burnt-offering, which stood in the court of the priests, where the prophet appeared to himself to be during the vision. The seraph took it from the altar, to show that men are to expect the expiation of sin, and purification from it, only by such means as... read more
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Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Isaiah 6:11
How long - The prophet did not dare to pray that this effect should not follow. He asked merely therefore “how long” this state of things must continue; how long this message was to be delivered, and how long it should be attended with these painful effects.Until the cities ... - They will remain perverse and obstinate until the land is completely destroyed by divine judgments. Still the truth is to be proclaimed, though it is known it will have no effect in reforming the nation. This refers,... read more