Isaiah 6:4-6
New English Translation
4 The sound of their voices shook the door frames,[a] and the temple was filled with smoke.
5 I said, “Woe to me! I am destroyed,[b] for my lips are contaminated by sin,[c] and I live among people whose lips are contaminated by sin.[d] My eyes have seen the king, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.”[e] 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.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- Isaiah 6:4 tn On the phrase אַמּוֹת הַסִּפִּים (ʾammot hassippim, “pivots of the frames”) see HALOT 763 s.v. סַף.
- Isaiah 6:5 tn Isaiah uses the suffixed (perfect) form of the verb for rhetorical purposes. In this way his destruction is described as occurring or as already completed. Rather than understanding the verb as derived from דָּמַה (damah, “be destroyed”), some take it from a proposed homonymic root דמה, which would mean “be silent.” In this case, one might translate, “I must be silent.”
- Isaiah 6:5 tn Heb “a man unclean of lips am I.” Isaiah is not qualified to praise the king. His lips (the instruments of praise) are “unclean” because he has been contaminated by sin.
- Isaiah 6:5 tn Heb “and among a nation unclean of lips I live.”
- Isaiah 6:5 tn Perhaps in this context, the title has a less militaristic connotation and pictures the Lord as the ruler of the heavenly assembly. See the note at 1:9.
Isaiah 6:4-6
New International Version
4 At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.(A)
5 “Woe(B) to me!” I cried. “I am ruined!(C) For I am a man of unclean lips,(D) and I live among a people of unclean lips,(E) and my eyes have seen(F) the King,(G) the Lord Almighty.”(H)
6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal(I) in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar.
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