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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 Genesis 3:22 and Isaiah 6:8

Hebrew Bible

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Summary

Genesis and Isaiah describe God speaking in the plural, saying “let us,” or “our,” a subtle detail likely referring to the presence of the divine council, a bureaucratic group of deities that help govern the world.

Passages

Genesis 3:22

Hebrew Bible
21 The Lord God made garments from skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them. 22 And the Lord God said, “Now that the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil, he must not be allowed to stretch out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” 23 So the Lord God expelled him from the orchard in Eden to cultivate the ground from which he had been taken.
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Genesis

Isaiah 6:8

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

References

"... Isaiah's cleansing prepares him to lead the people in a proper response to the rule of YHWH. Those who would accept Isaiah's message are those who are fit to participate in the new era God has inaugurated. That he is promised an audience composed of imperceptive people who lack understanding and who have hard hearts, dull ears and dim eyes indicates that the people are not yet prepared to give up the old way for the new (6:9-10). That he is called to make the people such, indicates that God does not desire their repentance. The time has come for an avenging of the covenant infidelities and YHWH does not wish the repentance of this people to interfere with his plan. Verse 8 marks an important event in the vision for our interest. In this verse the voice of the Lord is heard to call for mission volunteers. The plural form of address "Whom shall I send and who will go for us?" is indicative of addresses to the divine council and parallels similar occurrences of first person plural address in Genesis 1:26, 3:22, and 11:7 ... Isaiah's commission is not only to declare but in some measure, to effect the decision of the council ..."
Andrew Russell McGinn, “The Divine Council and Israelite Monotheism” (MTh diss., McMaster University, 2005), 104–105.

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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Genesis 3:22 and Isaiah 6:8

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