Isaiah 6King James Version
In the year that King Uzziah died, Isaiah sees the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train fills the temple. Seraphim cry 'Holy, holy, holy.' The posts of the door shake. Isaiah cries, 'Woe is me, for I am undone.' A seraph touches his lips with a live coal. Then the voice of the Lord saying, 'Whom shall I send?' Isaiah answers, 'Here am I; send me.'
The throne room vision: the year Uzziah dies, Isaiah sees the LORD enthroned, seraphim crying holy three times, the temple shaking. Isaiah confesses his unclean lips. A seraph flies to him with a live coal from the altar, touches his mouth, announces his guilt purged. God asks who will go. Isaiah volunteers. The mission is sobering: preach until the land is desolate and only a stump remains, the holy seed.
Encounter with true holiness produces undone confession before commission. The prophet is sent not to guarantee success but to witness faithfully through judgment.
verse: "Then 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", the coal on the lips is the central act of the chapter, purification through contact with the altar fire before any word can be spoken.
The Jerusalem temple, approximately 739 BC, the year Uzziah died after a long and successful reign. Political anxiety runs high about what comes next. In that moment of national uncertainty Isaiah sees through the building to what is actually enthroned, not a king of Judah but the LORD of hosts, whose glory fills the earth.
Isaiah the prophet. The LORD seated on the throne, his train filling the temple. The seraphim, six-winged creatures who cover their faces before holiness. The unnamed nation, spiritually deaf and blind, who will hear but not understand.
This is Isaiah's call narrative, placed not at the book's opening but at chapter 6, suggesting chapters 1-5 were already circulating. The triple holy (the Trisagion) became the backbone of Jewish and Christian liturgy. The hardening commission in verses 9-10 is quoted in all four Gospels and twice in Acts, making it one of the most cited Old Testament passages in the New Testament.
The experience is not comforting in the normal sense. The holiness is so overwhelming that Isaiah's first reaction is that he is finished, undone. The coal burns. The mission given is not easy. The chapter ends with a stump, not a victory.
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.
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.
3And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.
4And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.
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.
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:
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.
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.
9And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not.
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.
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,
12And the LORD have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst 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 the holy seed shall be the substance thereof.