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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 6:3 and Jonathan Isaiah 6:3

Hebrew Bible · Targum

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Summary

Isaiah 6 describes divine holiness that fills the earth. The Aramaic translation in Targum Jonathan expands this to describing holiness in heaven, on earth, and for all ages. This may reflect an early tradition that influenced Jewish and Christian texts.

Passages

Isaiah 6:3

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

Jonathan Isaiah 6:3

Targum
1 In the year that King Uzziah was struck with leprosy, the prophet said, I saw the glory of the LORD sitting on His throne, high and lifted up to the highest heavens, and the temple was filled with the brightness of His glory. 2 Holy ministers on high stood before Him; each one had six wings. With two he covered his face, so that it could not see; with two he covered his body, so that it could not be seen; and with two he was ministering. 3 One cried to another, and they were saying, “Holy in the highest and exalted heavens is the house of His Shekinah; holy on the earth is the work of His might; holy forever and ever is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of the brightness of His glory.” 4 The posts of the threshold of the temple shook at the voice of the one who cried, and the house of the sanctuary was filled with cloudy darkness. 5 Then I said, “Woe is me, for I have sinned! For I am a guilty man, deserving rebuke, and I dwell in the midst of a people polluted with sin; for my eyes have seen the glory of the Shekinah of the King of the worlds, the LORD of hosts.”
200–300 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Jonathan Isaiah

References

"... The targumic development of Isaiah 6:3, Holy in the highest heavens... holy upon earth... holy for endless ages, certainly is to be related, directly or indirectly, to Luke 2:14. If David Flusser's conclusions are exact, the tripartite form would have to be restored to the Gloria, by reading with a large number of witnesses: ... and among men divine benevolence — en anthropos eudokia, instead of eudokias ..."
Roger Le Déaut, “Targumic Literature and New Testament Interpretation,” BTB 4.3 (1974): 248.

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 6:3 and Jonathan Isaiah 6:3

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