Ezekiel 43:2-4

43:2 I saw ¹  the glory of the God of Israel ²  coming from the east; ³  the sound was like that of rushing water; ⁴  and the earth radiated ⁵  his glory. 43:3 It was like the vision I saw when he ⁶  came to destroy the city, and the vision I saw by the Kebar River. I threw myself face down. 43:4 The glory of the Lord came into the temple by way of the gate that faces east.

Exodus 24:10

24:10 and they saw ⁷  the God of Israel. Under his feet ⁸  there was something like a pavement ⁹  made of sapphire, clear like the sky itself. ¹⁰ 

Isaiah 6:1-5

Isaiah’s Commission

6:1 In the year of King Uzziah’s death, ¹¹  I saw the sovereign master ¹²  seated on a high, elevated throne. The hem of his robe filled the temple. 6:2 Seraphs ¹³  stood over him; each one had six wings. With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, ¹⁴  and they used the remaining two to fly. 6:3 They called out to one another, “Holy, holy, holy ¹⁵  is the Lord who commands armies! ¹⁶  His majestic splendor fills the entire earth!” 6:4 The sound of their voices shook the door frames, ¹⁷  and the temple was filled with smoke.

6:5 I said, “Too bad for me! I am destroyed, ¹⁸  for my lips are contaminated by sin, ¹⁹  and I live among people whose lips are contaminated by sin. ²⁰  My eyes have seen the king, the Lord who commands armies.” ²¹ 

[43:2]  ¹ tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates becoming aware of something and has been translated here as a verb.

[43:2]  ² sn This same title appears in 8:4; 9:3; 10:19; and 11:22.

[43:2]  ³ sn Earlier Ezekiel had observed God leaving the temple to the east (11:23).

[43:2]  ⁴ sn See Ezek 1:24; Rev 1:15; 14:2; 19:6.

[43:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “shone from.”

[43:3]  ⁶ tc Heb “I.” The reading is due to the confusion of yod (י, indicating a first person pronoun) and vav (ו, indicating a third person pronoun). A few medieval Hebrew mss, Theodotion’s Greek version, and the Latin Vulgate support a third person pronoun here.

[24:10]  ⁷ sn S. R. Driver (Exodus, 254) wishes to safeguard the traditional idea that God could not be seen by reading “they saw the place where the God of Israel stood” so as not to say they saw God. But according to U. Cassuto there is not a great deal of difference between “and they saw the God” and “the Lord God appeared” (Exodus, 314). He thinks that the word “God” is used instead of “Yahweh” to say that a divine phenomenon was seen. It is in the LXX that they add “the place where he stood.” In v. 11b the LXX has “and they appeared in the place of God.” See James Barr, “Theophany and Anthropomorphism in the Old Testament,” VTSup 7 (1959): 31-33. There is no detailed description here of what they saw (cf. Isa 6; Ezek 1). What is described amounts to what a person could see when prostrate.

[24:10]  ⁸ sn S. R. Driver suggests that they saw the divine Glory, not directly, but as they looked up from below, through what appeared to be a transparent blue sapphire pavement (Exodus, 254).

[24:10]  ⁹ tn Or “tiles.”

[24:10]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and like the body of heaven for clearness.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heaven” or “sky” depending on the context; here, where sapphire is mentioned (a blue stone) “sky” seems more appropriate, since the transparent blueness of the sapphire would appear like the blueness of the cloudless sky.

[6:1]  ¹¹ sn That is, approximately 740 b.c.

[6:1]  ¹² tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here and in vv. 8, 11 is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

[6:2]  ¹³ tn Hebrew שָׂרָף (saraf, “seraph”) literally means “burning one,” perhaps suggesting that these creatures had a fiery appearance (cf. TEV, CEV “flaming creatures”; NCV “heavenly creatures of fire”). Elsewhere in the OT the word “seraph” refers to poisonous snakes (Num 21:6; Deut 8:15; Isa 14:29; 30:6). Perhaps they were called “burning ones” because of their appearance or the effect of their venomous bites, which would cause a victim to burn up with fever. It is possible that the seraphs seen by Isaiah were at least partially serpentine in appearance. Though it might seem strange for a snake-like creature to have wings, two of the texts where “seraphs” are snakes describe them as “flying” (Isa 14:29; 30:6), perhaps referring to their darting movements. See the note at 14:29.

[6:2]  ¹⁴ sn Some understand “feet” here as a euphemistic reference to the genitals.

[6:3]  ¹⁵ tn Some have seen a reference to the Trinity in the seraphs’ threefold declaration, “holy, holy, holy.” This proposal has no linguistic or contextual basis and should be dismissed as allegorical. Hebrew sometimes uses repetition for emphasis. (See IBHS 233-34 §12.5a; and GKC 431-32 §133.k.) By repeating the word “holy,” the seraphs emphasize the degree of the Lord’s holiness. For another example of threefold repetition for emphasis, see Ezek 21:27 (Heb. v. 32). (Perhaps Jer 22:29 provides another example.)

[6:3]  ¹⁶ 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.

[6:4]  ¹⁷ tn On the phrase אַמּוֹת הַסִּפִּים (’ammot hassippim, “pivots of the frames”) see HALOT 763 s.v. סַף.

[6:5]  ¹⁸ 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.”

[6:5]  ¹⁹ 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.

[6:5]  ²⁰ tn Heb “and among a nation unclean of lips I live.”

[6:5]  ²¹ 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.