to hear intelligently (often with implication of attent… · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 1st person common singular
voice
ק֤וֹלKol
H6963
a voice or sound · noun, common masculine singular construct
Lord
אֲדֹנָי֙'a.do.Nai
H136
the Lord (used as a proper name of God only) · proper noun, a title
saying
אֹמֵ֔ר'o.Mer
H559
to say (used with great latitude) · verb, qal active participle, masculine singular absolute
send
אֶשְׁלַ֖ח'esh.Lach
H7971
to send away · verb, qal imperfect, 1st person common singular
go
יָלַךְyâlak
H3212
to walk (literally or figuratively)
said
וָאֹמַ֖רva.'o.Mar
H559
to say (used with great latitude) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 1st person common singular
send
שְׁלָחֵֽנִיshe.la.Che.ni
H7971
to send away · verb, qal imperative, 2nd person masculine singular + pronominal suffix
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Exodus 4:10-13 And Moses said unto the LORD, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant: but I am slow o…
Acts 26:16-17 But rise, and stand upon thy feet: for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness both of these thing…
Ephesians 3:8 Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of C…
Acts 22:21 And he said unto me, Depart: for I will send thee far hence unto the Gentiles.
Isaiah 65:1 I am sought of them that asked not for me; I am found of them that sought me not: I said, Behold me, behold me, unto a nation that was not c…
Matthew 4:20-22 And they straightway left their nets, and followed him.
Acts 20:24 But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, whi…
Deuteronomy 4:33-36 Did ever people hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as thou hast heard, and live?
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Isaiah 6:5-8
Our curiosity would lead us to enquire further concerning the seraphim, their songs and their services; but here we leave them, and must attend to what passed between God and his prophet. Secret things belong not to us, the secret things of the world of angels, but things revealed to and by the prophets, which concern the administration of God's kingdom among men. Now here we have,
I. The consternation that the prophet was put into by the vision which he saw of the glory of God (Isa 6:5): Then said I, Woe is me! I should have said, "Blessed art thou, who hast been thus highly favoured, highly honoured, and dignified, for a time, with the privilege of those glorious beings that always behold…
I . . . us--The change of number indicates the Trinity (compare Gen 1:26; Gen 11:7). Though not a sure argument for the doctrine, for the plural may indicate merely majesty, it accords with that truth proved elsewhere.
Whom . . . who--implying that few would be willing to bear the self-denial which the delivering of such an unwelcome message to the Jews would require on the part of the messenger (compare Ch1 29:5).
Here am I--prompt zeal, now that he has been specially qualified for it (Isa 6:7; compare Sa1 3:10-11; Act 9:6).
John Gill on Isaiah 6:8
Also I heard the voice of the Lord,.... The Targum renders it, the voice of the Word of the Lord, as if it was the second Person, the Word, that was heard speaking; but it seems rather to be the voice of the first Person, the Father:
saying, Whom shall I send? to the people of Israel, to reprove them for their blindness and stupidity, and to threaten them, and foretell unto them their ruin and destruction; intimating that it was a difficult thing to pitch upon a proper person; and that there were but few that were fit to go on such an errand: this is spoken after the manner of men; otherwise the Lord knew whom to send, and whom he would send; and could easily qualify anyone he pleased, and…
When Isaiah had seen the Lord seated high upon a lofty throne, what does he say? "Woe is me, because I am in sorrow; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people that has unclean lips." Pay attention to his exact words: Woe is me because of my unclean lips. After that, what does he tell us? Because his lips are soiled, one of the seraphim is sent to him, and the seraph taking a burning coal from the altar touches with it Isaiah's lips and tongue and purifies his mouth. Then what does the seraph say? "See," he said, "now that this has touched your lips, your tongue is cleansed." Then immediately, what does the Lord say? "Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?" O divine secrets of Scripture! As long as Isaiah's tongue was treacherous and his lips unclean, the Lord does not say to him, Whom shall I send, and who shall go? His lips are cleansed, and immediately he is appointed the Lord's spokesman; hence it is true that the person with unclean lips cannot prophesy, nor can he be sent in obedient service to God. "With fiery coals of the desert." Would to heaven this solitude were granted us, that it would clear away all wickedness from our tongue, so that where there are thorns, where there are brambles, where there are nettles, the fire of the Lord may come and burn all of it and make it a desert place, the solitude of Christ.
(Verse 8.) And I heard the voice of the Lord saying: Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? And I said: Here am I, send me. Because both us and all the other interpreters have translated it, the Hebrew phrase Lanu (), which means 'for us,' is put by the LXX to this people, which is not at all found in the Hebrew. But when it is said in the person of God, 'for us' is to be understood in that sense in which it is read in Genesis: Let us make man in our image, and likeness (Gen. 1:26), to indicate the sacrament of the Trinity. For just as we read in the Gospel, when the Lord says, 'I and the Father are one' (John 10:30), and we refer this to the unity of nature, namely, that we are one in essence, but to the diversity of persons, the Trinity governs as commanded by the Lord. However, the Lord does not specify whom to go forth, but presents the listeners with an option, so that the will may obtain the reward. And the Prophet does not promise to go forth by presumption and the arrogance of his own conscience, but by confidence: because his lips have been cleansed, and iniquity has been removed, and sin has been purified. Therefore Moses also, to whom the Lord said: Come, I will send thee to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt (Exod. III, 10), and he said: I beseech thee, Lord, I am not eloquent, send whom thou wilt (Exod. IV, 13), answered not with contempt, but with humility, because he had not heard anything from his purified lips, who had been educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. And Isaiah, not by his own merit, but by the grace of the Lord, by which he was purified, offered himself to the service. But others think that Isaiah offered himself because he thought that he had good news to announce to the people. But because he heard, 'Go, tell this people: You shall indeed hear but not understand, you shall indeed see but not perceive' (Isaiah 6:9), therefore, in the following passages, when the voice of the Lord said to him, 'Cry out,' he does not immediately cry out, but he asks, 'What shall I cry?' The prophet Jeremiah, to whom it had been said, 'Take this cup of the wine of wrath from my hand and drink to all the nations to which I send you' (Jeremiah 25:15), willingly receiving the cup of sufferings, so that he might offer it to the opposing nations, for them to drink, and vomit, and fall down; after he heard, 'Go and first offer it to Jerusalem,' he…
Dictionary and topics
Emblems Of The Holy Spirit, The · A voice — A voice
Holy Spirit · 31:3;35:31; — 31:3;35:31;
Holy Spirit, The, Is God · As Jehovah of hosts — As Jehovah of hosts
Inspiration Of The Holy Spirit, The · Modes of: By a voice — Modes of: By a voice
Ministers · Should be: Willing — Should be: Willing
Missionary Work By Ministers · God qualifies for — God qualifies for
Prophets · Extraordinary: Specially raised up on occasions of emergency — Extraordinary: Specially raised up on occasions of emergency
Trinity · THE HOLY — THE HOLY
Visions · Mentioned in scripture: To Isaiah — Mentioned in scripture: To Isaiah
Zeal, Religious · EXEMPLIFIE — EXEMPLIFIE
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
John Calvin on Isaiah 6:8
Afterwards I heard the voice of the Lord. The Prophet now begins to discourse about the design of this vision, why God appeared to him with such glorious majesty, in order to ordain him anew as a prophet. It was because he was called to deliver an incredible message about blinding the Jews. On this revolting occasion, therefore, he is more fully assured of his calling, that he may lay aside fear and obey the command of God; for nothing gives greater confidence to pious minds than to know that they obey God. He had also another proof, namely, that the Lord had cleansed him; and this was sufficient to lead him to undertake any task, however difficult.
Whom shall I send? The Prophet represents…
When Isaiah had been thus absolved, the true object of the heavenly scene was made apparent."Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then I said, Behold me here; send me!" The plural "for us" (lânu) is not to be accounted for on the ground that, in a case of reflection or self-consultation, the subject also stands as the object in antithesis to itself (as Hitzig supposes); nor is it a pluralis majestatis, as Knobel maintains; nor is the original abstract signification of the plural hinted at, as Meier thinks. The plural is no doubt used here with reference to the seraphim, who formed, together with the Lord, one deliberative council (sōd kedos…
Who will go for us? The Lord spoke in the presence of his angels, the heavenly council (see also 1 Kgs 22:19-22; Jer 23:18, 22). • Here I am: The prophet was so overcome by the grace of God in cleansing him that he willingly committed himself to a lifetime of ministry.
Rashi on Isaiah 6:8
Whom shall I send to admonish Israel? I sent Amos, and they called him, ‘Pesilus,’ because he was tongue tied, [’Pesilus’ being the Greek word for tongue-tied.] He prophesied two years before the earthquake, and the Israelites would say, The Holy One, blessed be He, left over the whole world and caused His Shechinah to rest on this tongue-tied one, as is stated in Pesikta.
