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Isaiah

About this book
Chapter 6

1 In the year of King Uzziah’s death, I saw the Lord seated on a high, elevated throne.⁠ The hem of his robe filled the temple.⁠ 2 Seraphs stood over him;⁠ each one had six wings.⁠ With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and they used the remaining two to fly.⁠ 3 They called out to one another, “Holy, holy, holy⁠ is the Lord of Heaven’s Armies!⁠ His majestic splendor fills the entire earth!”⁠ 4 The sound of their voices shook the door frames, and the temple was filled with smoke.⁠ 5 I said, “Woe to me! I am destroyed, for my lips are contaminated by sin, and I live among people whose lips are contaminated by sin. My eyes have seen the king, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.” 6 But then one of the seraphs flew toward me. In his hand was a hot coal he had taken from the altar with tongs. 7 He touched my mouth with it and said, “Look, this coal has touched your lips. Your evil is removed; your sin is forgiven.” 8 I heard the voice of the Lord say, “Whom will I send? Who will go on our behalf?”⁠ I answered, “Here I am, send me!” 9 He said, “Go and tell these people:⁠ “‘Listen continually, but don’t understand. Look continually, but don’t perceive.’⁠ 10 Make the hearts of these people calloused; make their ears deaf and their eyes blind.⁠ Otherwise they might see with their eyes and hear with their ears, their hearts might understand and they might repent and be healed.”⁠ 11 I replied, “How long, Lord?” He said, “Until cities are in ruins and unpopulated, and houses are uninhabited, and the land is ruined and devastated, 12 and the Lord has sent the people off to a distant place, and the very heart of the land is completely abandoned. 13 Even if only a tenth of the people remain in the land, it will again be destroyed, like one of the large sacred trees or an Asherah pole, when a sacred pillar on a high place is thrown down. That sacred pillar symbolizes the special chosen family.”⁠

Texts in conversation

Compare Isaiah 6:1 and 1 Enoch 14:18

Hebrew Bible · Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses

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Summary

Isaiah describes a vision of God wearing a robe and enthroned in the temple, with heavenly beings surrounding him and the sanctuary filled with smoke. 1 Enoch presents a similar scene where God's throne is revealed in a heavenly temple.

Passages

Isaiah 6:1

Hebrew Bible
1 In the year of King Uzziah’s death, I saw the Lord seated on a high, elevated throne. The hem of his robe filled the temple. 2 Seraphs stood over him; each one had six wings. With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and they used the remaining two to fly. 3 They called out to one another, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Heaven’s Armies! His majestic splendor fills the entire earth!” 4 The sound of their voices shook the door frames, and the temple was filled with smoke. 5 I said, “Woe to me! I am destroyed, for my lips are contaminated by sin, and I live among people whose lips are contaminated by sin. My eyes have seen the king, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.”
740–450 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Isaiah

1 Enoch 14:18

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
18 I looked and saw a lofty throne inside it. Its appearance was like crystal, and its wheels were like the shining sun, and there was the vision of cherubim. 19 From underneath the throne came streams of flaming fire, so that I could not look at it. 20 The Great Glory sat on it, and His garment shone more brightly than the sun and was whiter than any snow. 21 None of the angels could enter and look on His face because of its magnificence and glory, and no mortal could look on Him. 22 A flaming fire was all around Him, and a great fire stood before Him; no one near Him could come close. Ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him, yet He needed no counselor.
300 BCE – 100 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 1 Enoch

References

"... Unlike LXX Psalm 96, Hebrews does not explicitly cite LXX Psalm 95. Yet the author’s knowledge of a heavenly tabernacle (compare 8:2, 5) that Jesus entered when he ascended into heaven, and where he presented his offering before God (9:24–25) is remarkable in view of the preceding discussion of LXX Psalm 95. If, as seems likely, the realm that Jesus entered is the same realm the author expects to endure after the final shaking of the creation/κόσμος (compare 12:25–28), then the depiction of God’s temple as unshakable in LXX Psalm 95 may well be a thread in the larger web of biblical connections that supports his eschatological hopes. This is all the more interesting in light of the fact that Hebrews closely associates the heavenly tabernacle with the heavenly throne at God’s right hand (compare 8:1) ... This association between the tabernacle and the throne of God is already explicit in the biblical text where the Lord is depicted as a king who reigns from his seat between the cherubim, language that recalls the ark in the holy of holies (e.g., Psalm 99:1; compare 2 Kings 19:15; Isaiah 37:16) and from other passages that link the temple with the divine throne (e.g., Isaiah 6:1; Ezekiel 10:1–5; 43:6–7). The motif is common in texts that depict a tabernacle/temple in heaven where God sits enthroned in the holy of holies (e.g., 1 Enoch 14:18–20; Testament of Levi 3:4; 5:1) ..."
David M. Moffitt, Atonement and the Logic of Resurrection in the Epistle to the Hebrews (Leiden: Brill, 2011), 71–72.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Isaiah 6:1 and 1 Enoch 14:18

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