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LXX Isaiah

Septuagint

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Chapter 6

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. 5 And I said, Woe is me, for I am pricked to the heart; for being a man, and having unclean lips, I dwell in the midst of a people having unclean lips; and I have seen with my eyes the King, the Lord of hosts. 6 And there was sent to me one of the seraphs, and he had in his hand a coal, which he had taken off the altar with the tongs: 7 and he touched my mouth, and said, Look, this has touched your lips, and will take away your iniquities, and will purge off your sins. 8 And I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go to this people? And I said, look, I am here, send me. 9 And he said, Go, and say to this people, You shall hear indeed, but you shall not understand; and you shall see indeed, but you shall not perceive. 10 For the heart of this people has become gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; for fear that they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them.⁠ 11 And I said, How long, Lord? And he said, Until cities be deserted by reason of their not being inhabited, and the houses by reason of there being no men, and the land shall be left desolate. 12 And after this God shall remove the men far off, and they that are left upon the land shall be multiplied. 13 And yet there shall be a tenth upon it, and again it shall be for plunder, as a turpentine tree, and as an acorn when it falls out of its husk.

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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