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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 2 Samuel 22:7

Hebrew Bible

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Summary

2 Samuel 22 pictures God hearing a cry for help from his heavenly temple, and Isaiah 6 similarly shows God enthroned there. Together they present the temple as the heavenly center of divine presence, authority, and justice acting in the world.

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!”
740–450 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Isaiah

2 Samuel 22:7

Hebrew Bible
5 The waves of death engulfed me; the currents of chaos overwhelmed me. 6 The ropes of Sheol tightened around me; the snares of death trapped me. 7 In my distress I called to the Lord; I called to my God. From his heavenly temple he heard my voice; he listened to my cry for help. 8 The earth heaved and shook; the foundations of the sky trembled. They heaved because he was angry. 9 Smoke ascended from his nose; fire devoured as it came from his mouth; he hurled down fiery coals.
600–501 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in 2 Samuel

References

"... The prophets chose another language, other imagery with which to describe their intercourse with Yahweh, drawn as we have seen from the concept of the messenger of the Council of ʾEl ... Nevertheless, they used a refined or purged language of revelation, because Yahweh, so to say, no longer used the storm as a mode of self-manifestation”. It appears that Cross had in mind the difference in language and imagery between such scenes of theophany as those described in 2 Samuel 22, 8–16 on the one hand, and those described in Isaiah and Ezekiel on the other. Schematizations, though, whenever they are made, should be applied with caution, and it seems that Ezekiel 1, 4, for instance, still has something in common with the storm-God kind of theophany. Noteworthy is the fact that God is described in the theophany of 2 Samuel 22 as riding the stormy clouds, yet He still occupies there a palace (Hekhal; v.7) as He does in Isaiah 6, 1 ..."
Ithamar Gruenwald, Apocalyptic and Merkavah Mysticism, 2nd rev. ed. (Leiden: Brill, 2014), 69.

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 2 Samuel 22:7

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