Commentary on Isaiah - Volume 2

1In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne high and lifted up, and his remotest parts filled the temple.

2And seraphim stood above it;
Each had six wings;
With two they covered their face,
With two they covered their feet,
And with two did they fly.

3And one cried to another, saying,
Holy, holy, holy, is Jehovah of hosts;
The whole earth is full of his glory.

4And the posts of the doors were moved by the voice of him that cried,
And the house was filled with smoke.

5Then I said,
Wo to me, for I am undone; ³⁶⁰
Because I am a man of polluted lips,
And I dwell amidst a people having polluted lips;
And yet mine eyes have seen the king, Jehovah of hosts.

6And one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live coal, snatched with a fork from the altar.

7And laying it on my mouth, he said,
Lo, this hath touched thy lips,
And thy sin shall be expiated.

8Afterwards I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send? And who shall go for us? Then I said, Here am I, send me.

9Then he said,
Go and tell this people:
Hearing hear, and do not understand;
Seeing see, and do not know.

10Harden the heart of this people,
And make heavy their ears,
And close up their eyes;
Lest they see with their eyes,
And hear with their ears,
And their heart understand,
And when they have been converted, they be healed.

11And I said, how long, O Lord. And he said,
Till the houses be laid waste without inhabitant,
And the houses be emptied of men,
And the land be reduced to solitude;

12Till God have removed men far away,
And till there be great desolation in the midst of the land:

13Till a tenth shall return,
And be destroyed like a teil and an oak,
Whose substance is in them, when they cast their leaves;
So in it shall the substance be the holy seed.