Isaiah 6:7

The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible

Contextual Overview

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, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of Hosts." 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. 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."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!"

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

he laid it upon: Heb. caused it to touch, Jeremiah 1:9, Daniel 10:16

thine iniquity: Isaiah 43:25, Isaiah 53:5, Isaiah 53:10, Matthew 9:2, Hebrews 9:13, Hebrews 9:14, 1 John 1:7, 1 John 2:1, 1 John 2:2

Reciprocal: Exodus 4:11 - General Leviticus 16:12 - from off Numbers 16:46 - from off Nehemiah 8:10 - the joy Psalms 65:3 - transgressions Psalms 85:3 - taken Ezekiel 10:2 - coals Daniel 9:21 - touched Hosea 14:2 - away Matthew 8:15 - touched Revelation 14:6 - another

Cross-References

Genesis 6:1
Now when men began to multiply on the face of the earth and daughters were born to them,

Genesis 6:2
the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they took as wives whomever they chose.

Genesis 6:3
So the LORD said, "My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal; his days shall be 120 years."

Genesis 6:4
The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and afterward as well, when the sons of God had relations with the daughters of men. And they bore them children who became the mighty men of old, men of renown.

Genesis 6:20
Two of every kind of bird and animal and crawling creature will come to you to be kept alive.

Genesis 6:22
So Noah did everything precisely as God had commanded him.

Psalms 37:20
But the wicked and enemies of the LORD will perish like the glory of the fields. They will vanish; like smoke they will fade away.

Proverbs 10:27
The fear of the LORD prolongs life, but the years of the wicked will be shortened.

Proverbs 16:4
The LORD has made everything for His purpose-even the wicked for the day of disaster.

Hosea 4:3
Therefore the land mourns, and all who dwell in it will waste away with the beasts of the field and the birds of the air; even the fish of the sea disappear.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And he laid [it] upon my mouth,.... Because he had complained of the impurity of his lips, and that his mouth might take in by faith this comfortable doctrine of pardon, and it might be filled with praise and thankfulness; it denotes the ministration of the Gospel, as a means of the application of pardoning grace:

and said, lo, this hath touched thy lips; this coal, as a symbol of the word; the particle "lo", or "behold", is prefixed to this declaration, as requiring attention to a matter of importance, and as expressing something wonderful, and declaring something sure and certain; all which the pardon of sin is, and which is spoken of without a figure in the next words:

and thine iniquity is taken away: which was abominable in his sight; a burden to him, and the cause of his distress; even all his iniquity, and particularly the iniquity of his lips he had been mourning over, and confessing; this was taken away, as by the sacrifice of Christ, from the sight of God, so from his own conscience, by the application of pardon:

and thy sin purged; or "atoned for", or "covered" q; which is done meritoriously, only by the blood and sacrifice of Christ; and in a way of application by the Spirit of God, through a promise, and by the ministry of the word; which latter is here meant. The Targum is,

"and he disposed "it" in my mouth; and said, lo, I have put the words of my prophecy in thy mouth, and thine iniquities are removed, and thy sins are expiated, or forgiven.''

q תכפר "expiatur", Junius Tremellius, Cocceius "expiabitur", Montanus, Piscator; כפר "proprie tegere". Forerius.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

And he laid it upon my mouth - Margin, ‘And he caused it to touch my mouth.’ This is the more correct rendering. It was a slight, momentary touch, sufficient merely to be a “sign or token” that he was cleansed.

Thine iniquity is taken away - That is, whatever obstacle there existed to your communicating the message of God to this people, arising from your own consciousness of unworthiness, is taken away. You are commissioned to bear that message, and your own consciousness of guilt should not be a hinderance. To understand this, it should be remembered that “fire,” among the orientals, has been always regarded as an emblem of “purifying.” Thus the Sabeans, the followers or Zoroaster in Persia, worshipped “fire,” as the emblem of a pure divinity; see Malachi 3:2-3; compare Matthew 3:2. Every minister of the gospel, though conscious of personal unworthiness and unfitness, should yet go freely and cheerfully to his work, if he has evidence that he is called and commissioned by God. “Is purged.” Is purified, is removed - תכפר t^ekupâr from כפר kâphar, “to cover, to overlay;” then to make an atonement for, to expiate, to cover sin, to pardon it, to affect or to procure forgiveness; and then to purify in general, to make whole; compare the note at Isaiah 43:3. This does not mean, that the fire from the altar had any physical effect to purify him from sin, but that it was “emblematic” of such a purifying; and probably, also, the fact that it was taken from the altar of sacrifice, was to him an indication that he was pardoned through the “atonement,” or expiation there made. The Jews expected pardon in no other mode than by sacrifice; and the offering on their altar pointed to the great sacrifice which was to be made on the cross for the sins of human beings. There is here a beautiful “union” of the truths respecting sacrifice. The great doctrine is presented that it is only by sacrifice that sin can be pardoned; and the Messiah, the sacrifice himself, is exhibited as issuing the commission to Isaiah to go and declare his message to people.