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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 6:2 and LXX Isaiah 6:2

Hebrew Bible · Septuagint

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Summary

The Greek Septuagint translation of Isaiah 6 changes the heavenly throne room scene by relocating the winged beings from above the throne to around it, removing an image from the Hebrew version that could imply they outrank God.

Passages

Isaiah 6:2

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.
740–450 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Isaiah

LXX Isaiah 6:2

Septuagint
1 And it happened in the year in which king Uzziah died, that I saw the Lord sitting on a high and exalted throne, and the house was full of his glory. 2 And seraphs stood all around him: each one had six wings: and with two they covered their face, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. 3 And one cried to the other, and they said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Sabaoth: the whole earth is full of his glory. 4 And the lintel shook at the voice they uttered, and the house was filled with smoke.
100–1 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in LXX Isaiah

References

"... Theological traditions appear in the evocation of conceptions related to the Mount of the Lord, and the ‘Way’ of the Lord in LXX Isaiah 2:2–4 and 4:2–6. The translator of LXX Isaiah also seems to be influenced by the idea of the limited duration of God’s wrath derived from texts such as Psalm 30:6, Isaiah 10:25, and 54:7–8, and this was particularly felt in LXX Isaiah 7:4, 26:16, and 57:17. One can also note the possible link that the translator established between the depictions of an era of bliss in Isaiah chapters 11 and 65. Yet it is possible to affirm with Baer that we cannot identify a pervasive or consistent theological programme in LXX Isaiah, but rather tendencies, especially with regard to some nationalistic bents that can be identified in texts such as 25:2, 5, 26:1, and 54:5, and ameliorating statements about God or other subjects which could prove singularly ‘problematic’. In this connection, we note for instance the reading of LXX Isaiah 6:2, where the translation of mimma‘al by κύκλῳ probably serves the purpose of avoiding the notion that the angels could be flying ‘above’ God ..."
Rodrigo F. De Sousa, “Isaiah,” in The Oxford Handbook of the Septuagint, ed. Alison Salvesen and T. M. Law (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021), 245–258.

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 6:2 and LXX Isaiah 6:2

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