Isaiah · 13 verses
Isaiah 6
Every verse links to the people and places named in it, and to the passages readers connect it with.
The chapter
What happens here
Atlas's own reading, written from this chapter and nothing else, and published only once a person has approved it. Each scene names the verses it covers; the names inside it link to the people and places they name.
The prophet volunteers for a mission and is promptly told to make the people incapable of understanding, seeing, hearing, or being healed—a commission with the signposts facing the wrong way.
A throne, a coal, and a willing mouthvv. 1–8
In the year Uzziah died, the prophet sees the Lord seated high above, with the robe filling the temple. Seraphim cry out, the doorposts shake, and smoke fills the temple. The prophet declares himself ruined, but one seraph brings a glowing coal from the altar with tongs and touches his mouth; then, purified, he answers the Lord’s question with splendid readiness: “Here am I. Send me!”
The message, and its astonishing durationvv. 9–13
The mission turns out to be a message designed to leave its hearers hearing and its watchers watching without understanding or perceiving. When the prophet asks how long, the answer is a procession of ruin: empty cities, abandoned houses, a forsaken land, and even the surviving tenth burned again. The final image is not a flourishing tree but a stump, with the holy seed still in it.
The text
Read it
Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Names the Hebrew and Greek put in the verse link to the person, place or people they name; the address beside each verse is a link to that verse, which is what a reader copies and shares.
Isa 6:1In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted; and the train of His robe filled the temple.
Isa 6:2Above Him stood seraphim, each having six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying.
Isa 6:3And they were calling out to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of Hosts; all the earth is full of His glory.”
Isa 6:4At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook, and the temple was filled with smoke.
Isa 6:5Then I said: “Woe is me, for I am ruined, because I am a man of unclean lips dwelling among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of Hosts.”
Isa 6:6Then one of the seraphim flew to me, and in his hand was a glowing coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar.
Isa 6:7And with it he touched my mouth and said: “Now that this has touched your lips, your iniquity is removed and your sin is atoned for.”
Isa 6:8Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying: “Whom shall I send? Who will go for Us?” And I said: “Here am I. Send me!”
Isa 6:9And He replied: “Go and tell this people, ‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’
Isa 6:10Make the hearts of this people calloused; deafen their ears and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.”
Isa 6:11Then I asked: “How long, O Lord?” And He replied: “Until the cities lie ruined and without inhabitant, until the houses are left unoccupied and the land is desolate and ravaged,
Isa 6:12until the LORD has driven men far away and the land is utterly forsaken.
Isa 6:13And though a tenth remains in the land, it will be burned again. As the terebinth and oak leave stumps when felled, so the holy seed will be a stump in the land.”
02 — Read alongside
Where this is echoed
Readers' own connections, from OpenBible's crowd-voted cross-references — agreement about relevance, and not scholarly confidence. 215 passages were voted onto 13 verses of this chapter; the 16 shown lead on votes, and each is listed at the verse it was voted onto most strongly.
- 9Matthew 13:14–15In them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled: ‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.
- 9Luke 8:10He replied, “The knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that, ‘though seeing, they may not see; though hearing, they may not understand.’
- 9Mark 4:12so that, ‘they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven.’”
- 9John 12:40“He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, so that they cannot see with their eyes, and understand with their hearts, and turn, and I would heal them.”
- 9Acts 28:26–27‘Go to this people and say, “You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.”
- 9Romans 11:8as it is written: “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that could not see, and ears that could not hear, to this very day.”
- 9Isaiah 29:13Therefore the Lord said: “These people draw near to Me with their mouths and honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me. Their worship of Me is but rules taught by men.
- 1John 12:41Isaiah said these things because he saw Jesus’ glory and spoke about Him.
- 8Exodus 4:10–13“Please, Lord,” Moses replied, “I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since You have spoken to Your servant, for I am slow of speech and tongue.”
- 8Acts 26:16–17‘But get up and stand on your feet. For I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen from Me and what I will show you.
- 9Isaiah 43:8Bring out a people who have eyes but are blind, and who have ears but are deaf.
- 9Isaiah 44:18–20They do not comprehend or discern, for He has shut their eyes so they cannot see and closed their minds so they cannot understand.
- 8Ephesians 3:8Though I am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ,
- 8Acts 22:21Then He said to me, ‘Go! I will send you far away to the Gentiles.’”
- 10Matthew 13:15For this people’s heart has grown callous; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn, and I would heal them.’
- 8Isaiah 65:1“I revealed Myself to those who did not ask for Me; I was found by those who did not seek Me. To a nation that did not call My name, I said, ‘Here I am! Here I am!’
Onward