Isaiah 6

1 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up; and his train filled the temple.

2 Above him stood the seraphim. Each one had six wings. With two he covered his face. With two he covered his feet. With two he flew.

3 One called to another, and said, “Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of Armies! The whole earth is full of his glory!”

4 The foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.

5 Then I said, “Woe is me! For I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of Armies!”

6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar.

7 He touched my mouth with it, and said, “Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away, and your sin forgiven.”

8 I heard the Lord’s voice, saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am. Send me!”

9 He said, “Go, and tell this people, ‘You hear indeed, but don’t understand. You see indeed, but don’t perceive.’

10 Make the heart of this people fat. Make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their heart, and turn again, and be healed.”

11 Then I said, “Lord, how long?” He answered, “Until cities are waste without inhabitant, houses without man, the land becomes utterly waste,

12 and the LORD has removed men far away, and the forsaken places are many within the land.

13 If there is a tenth left in it, that also will in turn be consumed, as a terebinth, and as an oak whose stump remains when they are cut down, so the holy seed is its stump.”

Around Isaiah 6

Context

Context for this book is being written. A note appears here only once it names its sources.

AI explanation

About Isaiah as a whole · Written by an AI model · Not reviewed by a theological reader

This explanation was written by an AI model to help you get started. It names no sources and can contain mistakes. Scripture comes first, and context with sources is shown separately on this page.

What this book is about

It begins with a vision. In the year that King Uzziah died, the prophet sees the Lord on a throne, high and lifted up, and voices call, “Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of Armies!” Then comes a call for someone to go, and the answer, “Here I am. Send me!”

What he is sent to say is hard and then tender. To Judah and Jerusalem, the first part of the book (chapters 1 to 39) warns of the consequences of injustice and false trust, and it promises a child who will rule on David’s throne. The second part (40 to 55) opens with “Comfort, comfort my people” and speaks to a people in exile, and it tells of a servant who suffers for others. The last part (56 to 66) looks ahead to a renewed people and to a new heavens and a new earth.

Background

Isaiah son of Amoz prophesied in Jerusalem in the second half of the eighth century before Christ, while the Assyrian threat hung over the land. Many scholars think chapters 40 to 66 come from later prophets in his tradition, speaking during and after the exile. Others hold that Isaiah wrote the whole book. Either way, the book reads as one long conversation between God and a people who swing between fear and false confidence.

How Christians read it

No prophet is quoted more in the New Testament. Readers have long weighed who the suffering servant is. Christians read the servant of chapter 53 as fulfilled in the death of Jesus, and Jewish interpretation has most often understood the servant as Israel. Passages such as 7:14 and 9:6 are read by Christians as pointing to Christ, while also having a meaning in Isaiah’s own day. These are old readings held by people who love the same pages.

About this explanation

Written by Claude Sonnet 5.5, an AI model, on 20 October 2026. It draws on the WEB text and general knowledge and was not checked against sources by a person. Every quotation from Scripture is checked automatically against the WEB text.

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World English Bible. Public-domain source and edition notes