Isaiah 6:1-8, Revelation 4:6-8 NIV

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Isaiah 6:5

Isaiah feared that he would be consumed since he was in the presence of the purest of all beings. He announced woe on himself; he was in deep trouble (cf. Isaiah 5:8; Isaiah 5:11; Isaiah 5:18; Isaiah 5:20-22). These are the first words that Isaiah himself spoke in this book, and they announce a prophetic woe on himself. He first had to become aware of his own sin and uncleanness before he could worship God as he should. Not only did he have unclean lips, but he dwelt among a people whose lips... read more

Thomas Constable

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

Isaiah only acknowledged his hopeless condition-he did not plead with God or make vows to God-and God then went into action. Confession must precede cleansing (cf. 1 John 1:9). The altar from which the seraph took the coal was probably the brazen altar in heaven, in which case the coal itself symbolizes substitute sacrifice. [Note: Motyer, p. 78.] Fire from the brazen altar lit the incense on the incense altar in Israel, so, whichever altar may be in view, the coal connects with sacrifice. Fire... read more

Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Isaiah 6:7

God’s purging agent touched Isaiah’s mouth, and the angelic messenger assured the prophet that he had been completely cleansed of his uncleanness. We might call this Isaiah’s conversion experience. Compare Acts 9:3-11, which records the Apostle Paul’s conversion and call. read more

Thomas Constable

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

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

Charles John Ellicott

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

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Isaiah 6:5

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

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Isaiah 6:7

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

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

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

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

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