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Isaiah 6

Isaiah’s encounter with the holy King brings confession, cleansing, and a commission to announce judgment to an unseeing people.

In the year King Uzziah dies, Isaiah sees the Lord enthroned in the temple, attended by six-winged seraphim proclaiming his holiness. Isaiah confesses his unclean lips, and a seraph touches his mouth with a coal from the altar, declaring his sin forgiven. Isaiah then offers to go as God’s messenger. His commission concerns a people who will hear without understanding, and judgment that will empty the land. The closing image names a holy seed as the stump of a felled tree.

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Read
1In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up; and his train filled the temple.
2Above him stood the seraphim. Each one had six wings. With two he covered his face. With two he covered his feet. With two he flew.
3One called to another, and said, “Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of Armies! The whole earth is full of his glory!”
4The foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.
5Then I said, “Woe is me! For I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of Armies!”
6Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar.
7He touched my mouth with it, and said, “Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away, and your sin forgiven.”
8I heard the Lord’s voice, saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am. Send me!”
9He said, “Go, and tell this people, ‘You hear indeed, but don’t understand. You see indeed, but don’t perceive.’
11Then I said, “Lord, how long?” He answered, “Until cities are waste without inhabitant, houses without man, the land becomes utterly waste,
13If there is a tenth left in it, that also will in turn be consumed, as a terebinth, and as an oak whose stump remains when they are cut down, so the holy seed is its stump.”
World English BibleRead in NIV in Psalmlog →Highlighted verses are the most connected.
Key verses
Isaiah 6:3The seraphim proclaim the Lord’s holiness and earth-filling glory, setting the scale for Isaiah’s confession and commission.
Isaiah 6:9God’s first words of commission reveal that Isaiah’s hearers will receive his message without grasping what they hear.
Isaiah 6:10The command to harden the people makes Isaiah’s mission an act of judgment, leading to his question about its duration.
Where this chapter reaches

Revelation shares Isaiah’s vision of heavenly worship, with six-winged creatures proclaiming God’s holiness before his throne. Matthew, John, and Acts quote the warning about hearing without understanding and seeing without perceiving in accounts of responses to Jesus and the preaching of the gospel.

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Notice

After reading the whole chapter

How does Isaiah’s cleansing shape the way you understand his readiness to be sent?

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What questions does the command to harden the people leave you with?

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Questions people ask about Isaiah 6

What are the seraphim in Isaiah 6?

The seraphim are heavenly beings attending the Lord in Isaiah’s vision. Each has six wings: two cover the face, two cover the feet, and two are used for flight. They proclaim God’s holiness, and one brings the altar coal to Isaiah. The chapter does not explain their rank among heavenly beings.

Why does God harden the people’s hearts in Isaiah 6?

God commissions Isaiah to speak words that bring judgment through hardened hearts, heavy ears, and closed eyes. The stated result is that the people will not turn and be healed. When Isaiah asks how long, God describes devastation and removal from the land. The passage leaves many questions about this judgment unexplained.

What does the holy seed mean in Isaiah 6:13?

The holy seed is pictured as the stump remaining after a tree is cut down. Even the surviving tenth faces further destruction, so the ending offers restrained hope within severe judgment. The chapter does not name the seed’s members or describe how the stump will lead to renewed life.

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Isaiah · 66 chapters
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Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).