Isaiah — Chapter 6

In the year that king Ozias died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and elevated. Ozias's death (or leprosy-separation) marks the occasion; prophecy resumes. God appears as a king-judge, forewarning Isaiah of the coming sentence on Judah. Lapide argues Isaiah saw all three Persons of the Trinity directly, citing John 12:41 (the Son), Acts 28:25 (the Spirit), and the universal testimony of the Fathers including Ambrose, Nazianzus, Damascene, and even ancient Rabbis (R. Simeon bar Yohai: 'Sanctus = Pater; Sanctus = Filius; Sanctus = Spiritus Sanctus'). The vision was imaginative/intellectual, not corporeal (Augustine), though some hold otherwise.

The Seraphim stood upon it: the one had six wings, and the other had six wings. 'Seraphim' = Hebrew for 'burning/igniting ones' — highest angelic order, characterized by purity, vigil, agility, splendor, and above all the ardor of charity. Lapide's rich treatment: six wings = (1) two veiling the face = supreme reverence before Divine Majesty; (2) two veiling the feet = chastity and humble obedience (not discerning the command but executing it); (3) two extended in flight = readiness for God's service. Bonaventure's 'Six Wings of the Seraphim' applied to spiritual directors. Bernard: only God sits, only the Trinity has immutability; Seraphim stand; Lucifer fell by trying to sit.

And they cried one to the other, and said: Holy, holy, holy, the Lord God of hosts, all the earth is full of his glory. The threefold 'Sanctus' = the Holy Trinity in one essence; against the Arians and Macedonians (Ambrose, Nazianzus, Council of Constantinople). The trisagion is the origin of the Church's Sanctus in the Preface of the Mass, traced to the Apostles' time (Clement of Alexandria). History of the trisagion including its miraculous revelation under Theodosius II and its use to refute the Eutychians (Peter Gnaphaeus condemned by Felix II for adding 'qui crucifixus est pro nobis'). Calvinus accused by Hunnius ('Calvinus arianizans') for denying this Trinitarian reference.

And the lintels of the doors were moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. The doorposts shaken by the angelic cry symbolize the power of divine preaching; the smoke = the obscurity of divine mysteries in the Old Law, which the coming of Christ (light) will dispel. Applied to Isaiah's role: he is about to receive the fire that will make him a burning light.

And I said: Woe is me, because I have held my peace; because I am a man of unclean lips. Isaiah's contrition: (1) simple terror at the divine majesty (like Daniel 10:8: 'no strength remained in me'); (2) sorrow at having sinned through timidity and silence — failing to rebuke Ozias for usurping the priestly office (Jerome, Cyril, Haymo); (3) horror at his inadequacy compared to the Seraphic praise he witnesses. Lapide: the prophecy given here (ch.6-11 treating Jewish blindness) required this special divine confirmation through the vision, as it was the most grievous message.

And one of the seraphims flew to me, and in his hand was a live coal. The 'calculus/carbuncle' taken from the altar by tongs: Lapide argues it was simultaneously a burning coal (pruna) AND a carbuncle/precious stone, since in the heavenly altar everything is precious and eternal. Multiple symbolic meanings: (1) penance and contrition; (2) the Holy Spirit who purifies and sanctifies; (3) the grace of prophecy itself; (4) the Word of God (Jerome); (5) the Holy Eucharist (Damascene: 'the coal is not simple wood but united to fire; so the bread of communion is not simple bread but united to Divinity'). St. Francis of Assisi's seraphic stigmatization cited as the modern fulfillment of this burning-coal experience.

And he touched my mouth, and said: Behold this hath touched thy lips, and thy iniquity shall be taken away, and thy sin shall be cleansed. The purification was imaginative, not real (otherwise Isaiah's lips would have been burned useless). Isaiah received liberty, magnanimity, and prophetic fire — hence his immediate 'Mitte me' in v.8. Applied morally to sacramental absolution (Rupert: the seraph with the coal is the priest who absolves the penitent).

And I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: Whom shall I send? and who shall go for us? And I said: Lo, here am I, send me. The plural 'nobis' = the Trinity (alongside the singular 'mittam' = one essence). Lapide praises Isaiah's promptness (compared favorably with Moses's four-fold reluctance). Ambrose: God waited for Isaiah's voluntary offer in order to multiply his merit; Albertus Magnus: the true obedient one does not wait for the command but executes the superior's mere wish. Applied to missionaries who must be sent rather than self-appointed.

And he said: Go, and thou shalt say to this people: Hearing, hear, and understand not; and see the vision, and know it not. The imperative is used as a prophetic future (Hebraism): Isaiah predicts the voluntary blindness of the Jews. They will hear Christ's preaching and see His miracles but refuse to believe — calling His works the work of Beelzebub (Basil, Jerome, Cyril, Chrysostom). John 12:40 and Acts 28:25-26 apply this to Christ's rejection. Lapide: this blindness was freely chosen by the Jews, not imposed by God.

Blind the heart of this people, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes: lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and be converted, and I heal them. Excaeca = incrassate, make fat (Hebrew root = 'obese, dull'). Five theological points: (1) blindness is simultaneously sin, punishment of sin, and cause of sin (Augustine); (2) it involves both intellectual blindness and hardness of will; (3) its proximate cause is the sinner's own malice (positive cause); God blinds only indirectly and permissively; (4) Calvinus's doctrine of God directly and positively blinding men is blasphemous (contra Vatablus's corrupt commentary). 'Ne forte convertatur et sanem eum': God does not deny healing to those who want it — but cannot heal those who refuse the medicine.

And I said: How long, O Lord? And he said: Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land shall be left desolate. The desolation refers to the Roman destruction by Titus — not the Assyrian (against Chrysostom) nor the Babylonian (against Vatablus). Jerome, Basil, Cyril, Rupert confirm: the Jewish blindness will persist until their cities are laid waste and the people scattered throughout the world. Yet they will survive and multiply.

And the Lord shall remove men far away, and she that was left shall be multiplied in the midst of the land. The dispersion of the Jews to every corner of the world under Titus (and later Hadrian), yet their survival and multiplication in exile. Lapide: the Jewish people, though nearly destroyed, are by nature fruitful and by their marriage customs multiply even in exile.

And there shall be still a tithing in it, and she shall turn, and shall be made bare, as a terebinth, and as an oak that spreadeth its branches: that which shall stand therein shall be a holy seed. Multiple readings of Hebrew 'asiria' (decimatio): (1) nine parts destroyed by Romans, one-tenth converted to Christ; (2) ten-fold devastation repeated (ten historical sackings of Judah listed from Shalmaneser to Hadrian); (3) Chaldean: one in ten left after the gleaning (like the last grapes after the vintage). 'Semen sanctum' = primarily Christ Himself (column and foundation of all sanctity), then the Apostles and early Jewish converts from whom the Church propagated throughout the world.