Isaiah 6

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the long trailing part of his robe filled the temple.

1In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the LORD sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.

NoteKing Uzziah ruled Judah, the southern Israelite kingdom, for about fifty years and died around 740 BC; events were routinely dated by which king was reigning rather than by a numbered year. "The temple" is the temple in Jerusalem, the single building where sacrifice was offered; the Hebrew word can equally mean a king's palace or throne hall, and the scene draws on both. A robe with a long trailing skirt was the dress of a great monarch.

2Above him stood seraphim. Each one had six wings. With two wings each covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.

2Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.

Note"Seraphim" is already plural in Hebrew, so the KJV's "seraphims" adds a second plural. The name comes from a root meaning "to burn." Winged attendants of this kind appear only here; the same Hebrew word is used elsewhere of fiery serpents. "Feet" is frequently a polite Hebrew substitute for the genitals, so covering them means covering nakedness.

3One called out to another and said, "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of Hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory."

3And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.

Note"LORD" printed in small capitals stands for God's personal name in Hebrew, the four letters usually written Yahweh, which Jewish tradition does not pronounce aloud. "Hosts" means armies, the massed ranks of heaven. Hebrew has no word for "very" or "most"; it intensifies by repeating, and saying a word three times is the strongest emphasis the language has.

4At the sound of the voice of the one calling out, the doorposts shook, and the temple was filled with smoke.

4And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.

NoteThe Hebrew word behind "posts" refers to the pivots or foundations the doorway rested on, the most immovable part of the structure. Smoke filling the building recalls both the cloud and the burning incense that accompanied God's presence in Israel's sanctuary.

5Then I said, "How terrible for me! I am ruined. I am a man with unclean lips, and I live among a people with unclean lips. And my own eyes have seen the King, the LORD of Hosts."

5Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.

Note"Undone" translates a Hebrew verb meaning ruined or destroyed; some connect it with a root meaning "silenced," which would fit a complaint about lips. "Unclean" is not about dirt or bad language in the first instance: it is the ritual condition that barred a person from approaching holy things until purified. It was commonly assumed that a human being who saw God directly would not survive it.

6Then one of the seraphim flew to me. In his hand was a burning coal that he had taken from the altar with tongs.

6Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar:

NoteThe altar is the one in the temple, on which fire burned continually; the coal is a live ember from that fire. Tongs were part of the temple's bronze equipment, used for handling burning coals and tending lamps.

7He touched my mouth with it and said, "Look, this has touched your lips. Your guilt is taken away, and your sin is made clean."

7And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.

Note"Purged" in the KJV means cleansed, not burned off. The Hebrew verb is the one used in the sacrificial system for covering or wiping away guilt, often rendered "atoned for." "Iniquity" means guilt in both senses, the wrong done and the liability it creates.

8Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" Then I said, "Here I am. Send me."

8Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.

Note"Us" is plural in the Hebrew, sitting alongside the singular "I" of "shall I send." It has been understood in different ways (as God speaking to the heavenly beings assembled in the scene, or as a plural of majesty) and the text itself does not settle which.

9And he said, "Go and tell this people: 'Keep on listening, but do not understand. Keep on looking, but do not see what it means.'

9And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not.

NoteThe Hebrew doubles each verb ("hearing, hear"; "seeing, see"), a construction that means keep at it, do it continually or thoroughly. "Perceive" here means grasp the sense of what is seen, not merely detect it.

10Make the heart of this people dull. Make their ears hard of hearing, and shut their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their heart, turn back, and be healed."

10Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed.

Note"Make the heart fat" is a Hebrew idiom for making someone insensitive and unresponsive; in Hebrew the heart is the seat of thought and decision rather than of feeling. Hebrew also regularly phrases as a command what will in fact be the outcome, so the instruction can be read either as a task given to the prophet or as a description of the effect his message will have. "Convert" in 1611 English simply meant turn back or return; it carries no sense of changing religion.

11Then I said, "Lord, how long?" And he answered, "Until the cities are ruined and no one lives in them, and the houses are empty of people, and the land is left a complete waste,

11Then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate,

Note"How long?" is the fixed opening of a lament in Hebrew, the standard way of asking God when a disaster will end.

12and until the LORD has sent the people far away, and much of the land in the middle of it is left abandoned.

12And the LORD have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land.

Note"Removed men far away" describes deportation: the imperial practice, used by Assyria and later Babylon, of moving a conquered population out of its homeland to break its capacity to resist.

13But a tenth will still be left in it, and it too will be burned again. Yet like a terebinth or an oak that leaves a stump when it is cut down, the holy seed will be the stump of the land."

13But yet in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return, and shall be eaten: as a teil tree, and as an oak, whose substance is in them, when they cast their leaves: so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof.

Note"Teil tree" is an obsolete English name for the terebinth, a large spreading tree of the region. The Hebrew verb rendered "eaten" means consumed or burned. "Seed" means offspring or descendants, as it does throughout the KJV. The Hebrew of this closing verse is difficult, and the final phrase about the holy seed is missing from the oldest Greek translation, so how much of it is original is disputed.