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Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Isaiah 6:1-4

The vision which Isaiah saw when he was, as is said of Samuel, established to be a prophet of the Lord (1 Sam. 3:20), was intended, 1. To confirm his faith, that he might himself be abundantly satisfied of the truth of those things which should afterwards be made known to him. This God opened the communications of himself to him; but such visions needed not to be afterwards repeated upon every revelation. Thus God appeared at first as a God of glory to Abraham (Acts 7:2), and to Moses, Exod.... read more

Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Isaiah 6:5-8

Our curiosity would lead us to enquire further concerning the seraphim, their songs and their services; but here we leave them, and must attend to what passed between God and his prophet. Secret things belong not to us, the secret things of the world of angels, but things revealed to and by the prophets, which concern the administration of God's kingdom among men. Now here we have, I. The consternation that the prophet was put into by the vision which he saw of the glory of God (Isa. 6:5):... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Isaiah 6:1

In the year that King Uzziah died ,.... Which was the fifty second year of his reign, and in the year 3246 from the creation of the world; and, according to Jerom F12 Epist. Damaso, tom. 3. fol. 37. K. , was the year in which Romulus, the founder of the Roman empire, was born: some understand this not of his proper death, but of his being stricken with leprosy, upon his attempt to burn incense in the temple; upon which he was shut up in a separate house, which was a kind of a civil... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Isaiah 6:2

Above it stood the seraphims ,.... Not above the temple, nor above the throne, much less above him that sat upon it, but either "by him", on the right hand and on the left, as Aben Ezra; or "near him", as Kimchi and Ben Melech; or "before him", as the Targum; or "round about him", as the Septuagint; all which denote the ministering form in which they stood; by whom are meant, not the Son and Spirit, as some of the ancients thought, who imagined the Father to be the Person sitting on the... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Isaiah 6:3

And one cried unto another ,.... This denotes the publicness of their ministry, and their harmony and unity in it; they answered to one another, and agreed in what they said; their preaching was not yea and nay, 2 Corinthians 1:19 , and said, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts ; this expresses the subject matter of the Gospel ministry, respecting the holiness of God; all the doctrines of the Gospel are pure and holy, and have a tendency to promote holiness of heart and life, and... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Isaiah 6:4

And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried ,.... That is, the posts of the door of the temple, as the Targum adds, where this vision was seen, as represented to the prophet. Some think this respects the earthquake in Uzziah's time, mentioned in Zechariah 14:5 and which they suppose was at the time he attempted to offer incense, and was smitten with leprosy; but, as Kimchi observes, this moving of the door posts was only in the vision of prophecy, and not in reality;... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Isaiah 6:5

Then said I, woe is me ,.... There's no woe to a good man, all woes are to the wicked; but a good man may think himself wretched and miserable, partly on account of his own corruptions, the body of sin and death he carries about with him; and partly on account of wicked men, among whom he dwells, Romans 7:24 , for I am undone ; a good man cannot be undone, or be lost and perish; he is lost in Adam with the rest; in effectual calling he is made sensible of his lost and undone state;... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Isaiah 6:6

Then flew one of the seraphim unto me ,.... When the prophet had confessed his sin; for upon that follows the application of pardon; and when the seraph, or minister of the Gospel, had an order from the Lord to publish the doctrine of it: it is God's act alone to forgive sin; it is the work of his ministers to preach forgiveness of sin, and that to sensible sinners; who when they are made sensible of sin, and distressed with it, the Lord takes notice of them, and sends messengers to them, to... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Isaiah 6:7

And he laid it upon my mouth ,.... Because he had complained of the impurity of his lips, and that his mouth might take in by faith this comfortable doctrine of pardon, and it might be filled with praise and thankfulness; it denotes the ministration of the Gospel, as a means of the application of pardoning grace: and said, lo, this hath touched thy lips ; this coal, as a symbol of the word; the particle "lo", or "behold", is prefixed to this declaration, as requiring attention to a... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Isaiah 6:8

Also I heard the voice of the Lord ,.... The Targum renders it, the voice of the Word of the Lord, as if it was the second Person, the Word, that was heard speaking; but it seems rather to be the voice of the first Person, the Father: saying, Whom shall I send ? to the people of Israel, to reprove them for their blindness and stupidity, and to threaten them, and foretell unto them their ruin and destruction; intimating that it was a difficult thing to pitch upon a proper person; and that... read more

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