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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 all that was found in the preceding chapters was but the development of what he had then heard, and yet, at the same time, a representation of the evils which made the judgments he was commissioned to declare necessary. On the relation of the call to the prophet’s previous life, see <span class= "ital">Introduction.</span><p>The date is obviously given as important, and we are led to connect it with the crisis in the prophet’s life of which it tells. He had lived through the last twenty years or so of Uzziah’s reign. There was the show of outward material prosperity. There was the reality of much inward corruption. The king who had profaned the holiness of the Temple had either just died or was dragging out the dregs of his leprous life in seclusion (<a href="/2_chronicles/26-21.htm" title="And Uzziah the king was a leper to the day of his death, and dwelled in a several house, being a leper; for he was cut off from the house of the LORD: and Jotham his son was over the king's house, judging the people of the land.">2Chronicles 26:21</a>). The question, What was to be the future of his people? must have been much in the prophet’s thoughts. The earthquake that had terrified Jerusalem had left on his mind a vague sense of impending judgment. It is significant that Isaiah’s first work as a writer was to write the history of Uzziah’s reign (<a href="/2_chronicles/26-22.htm" title="Now the rest of the acts of Uzziah, first and last, did Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, write.">2Chronicles 26:22</a>). (See <span class= "ital">Introduction.</span>)<p><span class= "bld">I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne.</span>—Isaiah had found himself in ‘the court of the Temple, probably in that of the priests. He had seen the incense-clouds rising from the censer of the priest, and had heard the hymns and hallelujahs of the Levites. Suddenly he passes, as St. Paul afterwards passed, under the influence of like surroundings (<a href="/acts/22-17.htm" title="And it came to pass, that, when I was come again to Jerusalem, even while I prayed in the temple, I was in a trance;">Acts 22:17</a>), into a state of ecstatic trance, and as though the veil of the Temple was withdrawn, he saw the vision of the glory of the Lord, as Moses (<a href="/exodus/24-10.htm" title="And they saw the God of Israel: and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven in his clearness.">Exodus 24:10</a>) and Micaiah of old had seen it (<a href="/1_kings/22-19.htm" title="And he said, Hear you therefore the word of the LORD: I saw the LORD sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing by him on his right hand and on his left.">1Kings 22:19</a>), as in more recent times it had appeared to Amos (9:1). The King of kings was seated on His throne, and on the right hand and on the left were the angel-armies of the host of heaven, chanting their hymns of praise.<p><span class= "bld">His train filled the temple.</span>—The word for “temple” is that which expresses its character as the <span class= "ital">palace </span>of the great King. (Comp. <a href="/psalms/11-4.htm" title="The LORD is in his holy temple, the LORD's throne is in heaven: his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men.">Psalm 11:4</a>; <a href="/psalms/29-9.htm" title="The voice of the LORD makes the hinds to calve, and discovers the forests: and in his temple does every one speak of his glory.">Psalm 29:9</a>; <a href="/habakkuk/2-20.htm" title="But the LORD is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him.">Habakkuk 2:20</a>.) The “train” answers to the skirts of the glory of the Lord, who clothes Himself with light as with a garment (<a href="/context/exodus/33-22.htm" title="And it shall come to pass, while my glory passes by, that I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and will cover you with my hand while I pass by:">Exodus 33:22-23</a>). It is noticeable (1) that the versions (LXX., Targum, Vulg.) suppress the train, apparently as being too anthropomorphic, and (2) that to the mind of St. John this was a vision of the glory of the Christ (<a href="/john/12-41.htm" title="These things said Esaias, when he saw his glory, and spoke of him.">John 12:41</a>).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/6-2.htm">Isaiah 6:2</a></div><div class="verse">Above 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.</div>(2) <span class= "bld">Above it stood the seraphims . . .</span>—It is noticeable that this is the only passage in which the seraphim are mentioned as part of the host of heaven. In <a href="/numbers/21-6.htm" title="And the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died.">Numbers 21:6</a>, the word (the primary meaning of which is <span class= "ital">the burning ones</span>) occurs as denoting the fiery serpents that attacked the people in the wilderness. Probably the brazen serpent which Hezekiah afterwards destroyed (<a href="/2_kings/18-4.htm" title="He removed the high places, and broke the images, and cut down the groves, and broke in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses had made: for to those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it: and he called it Nehushtan.">2Kings 18:4</a>) had preserved the name and its significance as denoting the instruments of the fiery judgments of Jehovah. Here, however, there is no trace of the serpent form, nor again, as far as the description goes, of the animal forms of the cherubim of <a href="/context/ezekiel/1-5.htm" title="Also out of the middle thereof came the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance; they had the likeness of a man.">Ezekiel 1:5-11</a>, and of the “living creatures<span class= "ital">” </span>of <a href="/context/revelation/4-7.htm" title="And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle.">Revelation 4:7-8</a>. The “burning ones” are in the likeness of men, with the addition of the six wings. The patristic and mediaeval distinction between the seraphim that excel in love, and the cherubim that excel in knowledge, rests apparently on the etymology of the former word. The “living creatures” of <a href="/context/revelation/4-7.htm" title="And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle.">Revelation 4:7-8</a>, seem to unite the forms of the cherubim of Ezekiel with the six wings of the seraphim of this passage. Symbolically the seraphim would seem to be as transfigured cherubim, representing the “flaming fire” of the lightning, as the latter did the storm-winds and other elemental forces of nature (<a href="/psalms/104-4.htm" title="Who makes his angels spirits; his ministers a flaming fire:">Psalm 104:4</a>).<p><span class= "bld">Each one had six wings.</span>—The thought seems to be that the human form was clothed as it were with six wings. One pair of wings covered the face in token of adoring homage (<a href="/ezekiel/1-11.htm" title="Thus were their faces: and their wings were stretched upward; two wings of every one were joined one to another, and two covered their bodies.">Ezekiel 1:11</a>); a second, the feet, including the whole lower part of the human form, while with the third they hovered as in the firmament of heaven above the skirts of the glory of the Divine Throne. It is noticeable that the monuments of Persepolis represent the Amshashpands (or ministers of God) as having six wings, two of which cover the feet.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/6-3.htm">Isaiah 6:3</a></div><div class="verse">And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, <i>is</i> the LORD of hosts: the whole earth <i>is</i> full of his glory.</div>(3) <span class= "bld">And one cried unto another.</span>—So in <a href="/psalms/29-9.htm" title="The voice of the LORD makes the hinds to calve, and discovers the forests: and in his temple does every one speak of his glory.">Psalm 29:9</a>, 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 <span class= "ital">say, Glory.” </span>The threefold repetition, familiar as the <span class= "ital">Trisagion </span>of the Church’s worship, and reproduced in <a href="/revelation/4-8.htm" title="And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, LORD God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.">Revelation 4:8</a> (where “Lord God Almighty” appears as the equivalent of Jehovah Sabaoth), may represent either the mode of utterance, first antiphonal, and then in full chorus, or the Hebrew idiom of the emphasis of a three-fold iteration, as in <a href="/jeremiah/7-4.htm" title="Trust you not in lying words, saying, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, are these.">Jeremiah 7:4</a>; <a href="/jeremiah/22-29.htm" title="O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the LORD.">Jeremiah 22:29</a>. Viewed from the standpoint of a later revelation, devout thinkers have naturally seen in it an allusive reference to the glory of Jehovah as seen alike in the past, the present, and the future, which seems the leading idea in <a href="/revelation/4-8.htm" title="And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, LORD God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.">Revelation 4:8</a>, or even a faint foreshadowing of the Trinity of Persons in the Unity of the Godhead. Historically we cannot separate it from the name of the Holy One of Israel, which with “the Lord of hosts” was afterwards so prominent in Isaiah’s teaching.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/6-4.htm">Isaiah 6:4</a></div><div class="verse">And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.</div>(4) <span class= "bld">The posts of the door.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">the foundations of the threshold. </span>The words seem to point to the prophet’s position as in front of the Holy of holies.<p><span class= "bld">The house was filled with smoke.</span>—The vision had its prototype in “the smoke as of a furnace” on Sinai (<a href="/exodus/19-18.htm" title="And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the LORD descended on it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly.">Exodus 19:18</a>), in the glory-cloud of <a href="/1_kings/8-10.htm" title="And it came to pass, when the priests were come out of the holy place, that the cloud filled the house of the LORD,">1Kings 8:10</a>, 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 <a href="/revelation/15-8.htm" title="And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.">Revelation 15:8</a>, the “smoke from the glory of God” precedes the outpouring of the seven vials of wrath’. The parallelism of the clouds of incense-smoke as the symbol of adoring prayer (<a href="/revelation/5-8.htm" title="And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odors, which are the prayers of saints.">Revelation 5:8</a>; <a href="/revelation/8-4.htm" title="And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel's hand.">Revelation 8:4</a>) suggests an alternative interpretation as possible; but in that case mention would probably have been made of the censers from which it rose. The incense-clouds of the Temple may in either case have been the starting-point of the mystic vision.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/6-5.htm">Isaiah 6:5</a></div><div class="verse">Then said I, Woe <i>is</i> me! for I am undone; because I <i>am</i> 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.</div>(5) <span class= "bld">Then said I, Woe is me.</span>—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” (<a href="/exodus/3-6.htm" title="Moreover he said, I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look on God.">Exodus 3:6</a>). So Job “abhorred himself and repented in dust and ashes” (<a href="/job/42-6.htm" title="Why I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.">Job 42:6</a>). So Peter fell down at his Lord’s feet, and cried, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord” (<a href="/luke/5-8.htm" title="When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord.">Luke 5:8</a>). 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 can see God and live. (Comp. also <a href="/1_samuel/6-20.htm" title="And the men of Bethshemesh said, Who is able to stand before this holy LORD God? and to whom shall he go up from us?">1Samuel 6:20</a>.)<p><span class= "bld">I am a man of unclean lips.</span>—The prophet’s words present at once a parallel and a contrast to those of Moses in <a href="/exodus/4-10.htm" title="And Moses said to the LORD, O my LORD, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since you have spoken to your servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue.">Exodus 4:10</a>. The Lawgiver feels only, or chiefly, his want of the <span class= "ital">gift </span>of utterance which was needed for his work. With Isaiah the dominant thought is that his lips have been defiled by past sins of speech. How can he join in the praises of the seraphim with those lips from which have so often come bitter and hasty words, formal and ceremonial prayers? (Comp. <a href="/james/3-2.htm" title="For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body.">James 3:2</a>; <a href="/james/3-9.htm" title="Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God.">James 3:9</a>). His lips are “unclean” like those of one stricken, as Uzziah had been, by leprosy (<a href="/leviticus/13-45.htm" title="And the leper in whom the plague is, his clothes shall be rent, and his head bore, and he shall put a covering on his upper lip, and shall cry, Unclean, unclean.">Leviticus 13:45</a>). He finds no comfort in the thought that others are as bad as he is, that he “dwells in the midst of a people of unclean lips.” Were it otherwise, there might be some hope that influence from without might work his purification. As it is, he and his people seem certain to sink into the abyss. To “have seen the King, the Lord of hosts,” was in such a case simply overwhelming (<a href="/exodus/33-20.htm" title="And he said, You can not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live.">Exodus 33:20</a>).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/6-6.htm">Isaiah 6:6</a></div><div class="verse">Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, <i>which</i> he had taken with the tongs from off the altar:</div>(6) <span class= "bld">Then flew one of the seraphims.</span>—In presenting the vision to our mind’s eye we have to think of the bright seraph form, glowing as with fire, and with wings like the lightning-flash, leaving his station above the throne, and coming to where the prophet stood in speechless terror. The altar from which he took the “live coal “—literally, <span class= "ital">stone, </span>and interpreted by some critics of the stones of which the altar was constructed—is commonly thought of as belonging, like that of <a href="/revelation/8-5.htm" title="And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth: and there were voices, and thunder, and lightning, and an earthquake.">Revelation 8:5</a>; <a href="/revelation/9-13.htm" title="And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God,">Revelation 9:13</a>, to the heavenly Temple which was opened to the prophet’s view. There seems, however, a deeper meaning in the symbolism if we think of the seraph as descending from the height above the throne to the altar of incense, near which Isaiah actually stood. It was from that altar that the glowing charcoal was taken. What had seemed part of the material of a formal worship became quickened with a living power. The symbol became sacramental. So in <a href="/psalms/51-7.htm" title="Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.">Psalm 51:7</a>, the prayer of the penitent is “Purge me with hyssop”—<span class= "ital">i.e., </span>make the symbol a reality. Fire, it need hardly be said, is throughout the Bible the symbol at once of the wrath and the love of God, destroying the evil and purifying the good (<a href="/numbers/31-23.htm" title="Every thing that may abide the fire, you shall make it go through the fire, and it shall be clean: nevertheless it shall be purified with the water of separation: and all that stays not the fire you shall make go through the water.">Numbers 31:23</a>; <a href="/malachi/3-2.htm" title="But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appears? for he is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap:">Malachi 3:2</a>; <a href="/matthew/3-11.htm" title="I indeed baptize you with water to repentance. but he that comes after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear. he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire.">Matthew 3:11</a>; <a href="/1_corinthians/3-15.htm" title="If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.">1Corinthians 3:15</a>; <a href="/hebrews/12-29.htm" title="For our God is a consuming fire.">Hebrews 12:29</a>; <a href="/1_peter/1-7.htm" title="That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perishes, though it be tried with fire, might be found to praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:">1Peter 1:7</a>). Isaiah passed, as it were, through the purgatory of an instantaneous agony.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/6-7.htm">Isaiah 6:7</a></div><div class="verse">And he laid <i>it</i> upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.</div>(7) <span class= "bld">And he laid it upon my mouth.</span>—So Jehovah “touched the mouth” of Isaiah’s great successor (<a href="/jeremiah/1-9.htm" title="Then the LORD put forth his hand, and touched my mouth. And the LORD said to me, Behold, I have put my words in your mouth.">Jeremiah 1:9</a>); but not in that case with a “coal from the altar.” That prophet, like Moses (<a href="/exodus/4-10.htm" title="And Moses said to the LORD, O my LORD, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since you have spoken to your servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue.">Exodus 4:10</a>), had felt only or chiefly the want of power (“Alas! I cannot speak), and power was given him. Isaiah desired purity, and his prayer also was answered.<p><span class= "bld">Thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.</span>—The clauses express the two elements of the great change which men, according to their varying systems, have called Conversion, the New Birth, Regeneration; but which is at all times a necessary stage in the perfecting of the saints of God. Pardon and purity are the conditions alike of the prophet’s work and of the completeness of his own spiritual life.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/6-8.htm">Isaiah 6:8</a></div><div class="verse">Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here <i>am</i> I; send me.</div>(8) <span class= "bld">Also I heard the</span> <span class= "bld">voice of the Lord.</span>—The work of cleansing has made the prophet one of the heavenly brotherhood. He is as an angel called <span class= "ital">to </span>an angel’s work. (Comp. <a href="/judges/2-1.htm" title="And an angel of the LORD came up from Gilgal to Bochim, and said, I made you to go up out of Egypt, and have brought you to the land which I swore to your fathers; and I said, I will never break my covenant with you.">Judges 2:1</a>; <a href="/judges/5-23.htm" title="Curse you Meroz, said the angel of the LORD, curse you bitterly the inhabitants thereof; because they came not to the help of the LORD, to the help of the LORD against the mighty.">Judges 5:23</a>; <a href="/malachi/3-1.htm" title="Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the LORD, whom you seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom you delight in: behold, he shall come, said the LORD of hosts.">Malachi 3:1</a>.) He had before seen the glory of Jehovah, and had been overwhelmed with terror. Now he hears His voice (<a href="/john/10-4.htm" title="And when he puts forth his own sheep, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice.">John 10:4</a>), and it rouses him to self-consecration and activity.<p><span class= "bld">Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?</span>—The union of the singular and plural in the same sentence is significant. The latter does not admit of being explained as a <span class= "ital">pluralis majestatis, </span>for the great kings of Assyria, and Babylon, and Persia always spoke of themselves in the singular (<span class= "ital">Records of the Past, passim</span>)<span class= "ital">, </span>and the “plural of majesty” was an invention of the servility of the Byzantine court. A partial explanation is found in the fact that here, as elsewhere (<a href="/1_kings/22-19.htm" title="And he said, Hear you therefore the word of the LORD: I saw the LORD sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing by him on his right hand and on his left.">1Kings 22:19</a> : <a href="/job/1-6.htm" title="Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them.">Job 1:6</a>; <a href="/job/2-1.htm" title="Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them to present himself before the LORD.">Job 2:1</a>; and perhaps <a href="/genesis/1-26.htm" title="And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.">Genesis 1:26</a>; <a href="/genesis/11-7.htm" title="Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.">Genesis 11:7</a>), Jehovah is represented as a king in council. Christian thought has, however, scarcely erred in believing that the words were as a dim foreshadowing of the truth, afterwards to be revealed, of a plurality within the Unity. (See Note on <a href="/isaiah/6-3.htm" title="And one cried to another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.">Isaiah 6:3</a>.) <a href="/psalms/110-1.htm" title="The LORD said to my Lord, Sit you at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.">Psalm 110:1</a>, which Isaiah may have known, suggested at least a duality. The question reveals to the prophet that there is a work to be done for Jehovah, that He needs an instrument for that work. It is implied that no angel out of the whole host, no man out of the whole nation, offers to undertake it. (Comp. <a href="/isaiah/63-3.htm" title="I have trodden the wine press alone; and of the people there was none with me: for I will tread them in my anger, and trample them in my fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled on my garments, and I will stain all my raiment.">Isaiah 63:3</a>; <a href="/isaiah/63-5.htm" title="And I looked, and there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none to uphold: therefore my own arm brought salvation to me; and my fury, it upheld me.">Isaiah 63:5</a>.) The prophet, with the ardour for work which follows on the sense of pardon, volunteers for it before he knows what it is. He reaches in one moment the supreme height <span class= "ital">of </span>the faith which went forth, not knowing whither it went (<a href="/hebrews/11-8.htm" title="By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing where he went.">Hebrews 11:8</a>).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/6-9.htm">Isaiah 6:9</a></div><div class="verse">And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not.</div>(9) <span class= "bld">Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not.</span>—No harder task, it may be, was ever given to man. Ardent dreams of reformation and revival, the nation renewing its strength like the eagle, were scattered to the winds; and he had to face the prospect of a fruitless labour, of feeling that he did but increase the evil against which he strove. It was the very opposite mission of that to which St. Paul was sent, to “open men’s eyes, and turn them from darkness to light” (<a href="/acts/26-18.htm" title="To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.">Acts 26:18</a>). It is significant that the words that followed were quoted both by the Christ (<a href="/context/matthew/13-14.htm" title="And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which said, By hearing you shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing you shall see, and shall not perceive:">Matthew 13:14-15</a>; <a href="/mark/4-12.htm" title="That seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not understand; lest at any time they should be converted, and their sins should be forgiven them.">Mark 4:12</a>), by St. John (<a href="/john/12-40.htm" title="He has blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them.">John 12:40</a>), and by St. Paul (<a href="/context/acts/28-26.htm" title="Saying, Go to this people, and say, Hearing you shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing you shall see, and not perceive:">Acts 28:26-27</a>), as finding their fulfilment in their own work and the analogous circumstances of their own time. History was repeating itself. To Isaiah, as with greater clearness to St. Paul (Romans 9-11), there was given the support of the thought that the failure which he saw was not total, that even then a “remnant should be saved;” that though his people had “stumbled,” they had not “fallen” irretrievably; that the ideal Israel should one day be realised. The words point at once to the guilt of “this people “—we note the touch of scorn (“populus <span class= "ital">iste”</span>) in the manner in which they are mentioned (<a href="/isaiah/8-11.htm" title="For the LORD spoke thus to me with a strong hand, and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying,">Isaiah 8:11</a>; <a href="/isaiah/28-11.htm" title="For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people.">Isaiah 28:11</a>; <a href="/isaiah/28-14.htm" title="Why hear the word of the LORD, you scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem.">Isaiah 28:14</a>; <a href="/matthew/9-3.htm" title="And, behold, certain of the scribes said within themselves, This man blasphemes.">Matthew 9:3</a>; <a href="/matthew/26-61.htm" title="And said, This fellow said, I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to build it in three days.">Matthew 26:61</a>)—and to its punishment. All was outward with them. Words did not enter into their minds (“heart,” <span class= "ital">i.e., </span>“understanding,” rather than “feeling”). Events that were “signs of the times,” calls to repentance or to action, were taken as things of course. For such a state, after a certain stage, there is but one treatment. It must run its course and “dree its weird,” partly as a righteous retribution, partly as the only remedial process possible.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/6-10.htm">Isaiah 6:10</a></div><div class="verse">Make 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.</div>(10) <span class= "bld">Make the heart of this people fat.</span>—The thought is the same as that of the “hardening” of Pharaoh’s heart (<a href="/exodus/8-19.htm" title="Then the magicians said to Pharaoh, This is the finger of God: and Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he listened not to them; as the LORD had said.">Exodus 8:19</a>; <a href="/exodus/9-34.htm" title="And when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunders were ceased, he sinned yet more, and hardened his heart, he and his servants.">Exodus 9:34</a>, &c) and that of Sihon (<a href="/deuteronomy/2-30.htm" title="But Sihon king of Heshbon would not let us pass by him: for the LORD your God hardened his spirit, and made his heart obstinate, that he might deliver him into your hand, as appears this day.">Deuteronomy 2:30</a>). It implies the reckless headstrong will which defies restraint and warnings. So the poets of Greece, in their thoughts as to the Divine government of the world, recognised the truth that there is a judicial blindness and, as it were, insanity of will that comes as the consequence of sinful deeds ( Æsch. <span class= "ital">Agam. </span>370-386). The mediaeval adage, “<span class= "ital">Quem Deus vult perdere prius dementat,” </span>expresses one aspect of the same law; but the <span class= "ital">vult perdere </span>is excluded by the clearer revelation of the Divine purpose (<a href="/ezekiel/18-23.htm" title="Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? said the Lord GOD: and not that he should return from his ways, and live?">Ezekiel 18:23</a>; <a href="/1_timothy/2-4.htm" title="Who will have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth.">1Timothy 2:4</a>; <a href="/2_peter/2-9.htm" title="The Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust to the day of judgment to be punished:">2Peter 2:9</a>), as “not willing that any should perish.”<p><span class= "bld">Shut their eyes.</span>—Literally, as in <a href="/isaiah/29-10.htm" title="For the LORD has poured out on you the spirit of deep sleep, and has closed your eyes: the prophets and your rulers, the seers has he covered.">Isaiah 29:10</a>, <span class= "ital">daub, </span>or <span class= "ital">besmear. </span>Possibly the phrase refers to the barbarous practice, not unknown in the East, of thus closing the eyes as a punishment. Burder (<span class= "ital">Oriental Customs, </span>i. 98) mentions a son of the Great Mogul who was thus punished by his father. For the ethical fact, as well as for the phrase, we may (with Cheyne) compare Shakespeare—<p>“For when we in our viciousness grow hard,<p>Oh, misery on’t, the wise gods seal our eyes.”<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/6-11.htm">Isaiah 6:11</a></div><div class="verse">Then 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,</div>(11) <span class= "bld">Lord, how long?</span>—The prophet asks the question which is ever on the lips of those who are brought face to face with the problems of the world, with the great mystery of evil, sin permitted to work out fresh evil as its punishment, and yet remaining evil. How long shall all this last? So a later prophet, towards the close of the seventy years of exile, cried once again, “How long?” (<a href="/daniel/8-13.htm" title="Then I heard one saint speaking, and another saint said to that certain saint which spoke, How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice, and the transgression of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot?">Daniel 8:13</a>). So the cry, “How long, O Lord, dost thou not judge?” came from the souls beneath the altar (<a href="/revelation/6-10.htm" title="And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, do you not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?">Revelation 6:10</a>).<p><span class= "bld">Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant.</span>—The words answer the immediate question of the prophet within its horizon. They suggest an answer to all analogous questions. Stroke after stroke must come, judgment after judgment, till the sin has been adequately punished; but the darkness of the prospect, terrible as it is, does not exclude the glimmer of an eternal hope for the far-off future.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/6-12.htm">Isaiah 6:12</a></div><div class="verse">And the LORD have removed men far away, and <i>there be</i> a great forsaking in the midst of the land.</div>(12) <span class= "bld">And the Lord have removed men far away.</span>—The words point to the policy of deportation adopted by the Assyrian kings. From the first hour of Isaiah’s call the thought of an exile and a return from exile was the key-note of his teaching, and of that thought thus given in germ, his whole after-work was but a development, the horizon of his vision expanding and taking in the form of another empire than the Assyrian as the instrument of punishment.<p><span class= "bld">And there be a great forsaking.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">great shall be the deserted space. </span>(Comp. <a href="/isaiah/5-9.htm" title="In my ears said the LORD of hosts, Of a truth many houses shall be desolate, even great and fair, without inhabitant.">Isaiah 5:9</a>; <a href="/context/isaiah/7-22.htm" title="And it shall come to pass, for the abundance of milk that they shall give he shall eat butter: for butter and honey shall every one eat that is left in the land.">Isaiah 7:22-23</a>.) The words may have connected themselves in Isaiah’s thoughts with what he had heard before from the lips of Micah (<a href="/jeremiah/26-18.htm" title="Micah the Morasthite prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah, and spoke to all the people of Judah, saying, Thus said the LORD of hosts; Zion shall be plowed like a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of a forest.">Jeremiah 26:18</a>; <a href="/micah/3-12.htm" title="Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest.">Micah 3:12</a>).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/6-13.htm">Isaiah 6:13</a></div><div class="verse">But yet in it <i>shall be</i> a tenth, and <i>it</i> shall return, and shall be eaten: as a teil tree, and as an oak, whose substance <i>is</i> in them, when they cast <i>their leaves: so</i> the holy seed <i>shall be</i> the substance thereof.</div>(13) <span class= "bld">But yet in it shall be a tenth . . .</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">And though there should be a tenth in it, yet this shall be again devoured </span>(<span class= "ital">with fire</span>)<span class= "ital">. </span>What the prophet is led to expect is a series of successive chastisements sifting the people, till the remnant of the chosen ones alone is left. (Comp. the same thought under a different imagery in <a href="/ezekiel/5-12.htm" title="A third part of you shall die with the pestilence, and with famine shall they be consumed in the middle of you: and a third part shall fall by the sword round about you; and I will scatter a third part into all the winds, and I will draw out a sword after them.">Ezekiel 5:12</a> : <a href="/context/zechariah/13-8.htm" title="And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, said the LORD, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein.">Zechariah 13:8-9</a>.) The “tenth” is taken, as in <a href="/leviticus/27-30.htm" title="And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land, or of the fruit of the tree, is the LORD's: it is holy to the LORD.">Leviticus 27:30</a>, for an ideally consecrated portion.<p><span class= "bld">As a teil tree.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">terebinth; </span>and for “when they cast their leaves” read, <span class= "ital">when they are cut down. </span>The “teil tree” of the Authorised Version is probably meant for the “lime<span class= "ital">” </span>(<span class= "ital">tilier, tilleul</span>)<span class= "ital">. </span>The thought of this verse is that embodied in the name of his son <span class= "ital">Shear-jashub </span>(see Note on <a href="/isaiah/7-3.htm" title="Then said the LORD to Isaiah, Go forth now to meet Ahaz, you, and Shearjashub your son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool in the highway of the fuller's field;">Isaiah 7:3</a>), and constantly reappears (<a href="/isaiah/1-27.htm" title="Zion shall be redeemed with judgment, and her converts with righteousness.">Isaiah 1:27</a>; <a href="/context/isaiah/4-2.htm" title="In that day shall the branch of the LORD be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel.">Isaiah 4:2-3</a>; <a href="/isaiah/10-20.htm" title="And it shall come to pass in that day, that the remnant of Israel, and such as are escaped of the house of Jacob, shall no more again stay on him that smote them; but shall stay on the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.">Isaiah 10:20</a>; <a href="/isaiah/29-17.htm" title="Is it not yet a very little while, and Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be esteemed as a forest?">Isaiah 29:17</a>; <a href="/isaiah/30-15.htm" title="For thus said the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall you be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength: and you would not.">Isaiah 30:15</a>, &c). The tree might be stripped of its leaves, and its branches lopped off, and nothing but the stump left; but from that seemingly dead and decayed stock, pruned by the chastisements of God (<a href="/john/15-2.htm" title="Every branch in me that bears not fruit he takes away: and every branch that bears fruit, he purges it, that it may bring forth more fruit.">John 15:2</a>), a young shoot should spring, holy, as consecrated to Jehovah, and carry on the continuity of the nation’s life. The same thought is dominant in St. Paul’s hope for his people. At first the “remnant,” and then “all Israel,” should be saved (<a href="/romans/11-5.htm" title="Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.">Romans 11:5</a>; <a href="/romans/11-26.htm" title="And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:">Romans 11:26</a>). In <a href="/isaiah/10-33.htm" title="Behold, the Lord, the LORD of hosts, shall lop the bough with terror: and the high ones of stature shall be hewn down, and the haughty shall be humbled.">Isaiah 10:33</a> to <a href="/isaiah/11-1.htm" title="And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots:">Isaiah 11:1</a> the same image is specially applied to the house of David, and becomes, therefore, essentially Messianic.<p><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center">Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers<br /><br />Text Courtesy of <a href="//biblesupport.com" target="_top">BibleSupport.com</a>. 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