Isaiah 6:5

"The foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke."

Key Reflection

In first-century Israel, temples were often grand structures filled with symbolism; the Temple of Jerusalem, in particular, was considered a place where divine presence dwelled prominently. When Isaiah describes the foundations of the thresholds shaking and the house being filled with smoke, his original audience would have understood this as a profound display of God's powerful and awe-inspiring presence. The imagery evokes the immediate sense of divine revelation and the sacred atmosphere that enveloped the temple, signifying a moment of intense spiritual encounter where the barrier between human and divine realms was momentarily dissolved.

From the Scholars: Barnes' Notes

Wo is me! -That is, I am filled with overwhelming convictions of my own unworthiness, with alarm that I have seen Yahweh. For I am undone -Margin, ‘Cut off.’ Chaldee, ‘I have sinned.’ Septuagint, ‘I am miserable, I am pierced through.’ Syriac, ‘I am struck dumb.’ The Hebrew word may sometimes have this meaning, but it also means “to be destroyed, to be ruined, to perish;” seeHosea 10:15;Zephaniah 1:2;Hosea 4:6;Isaiah 15:1. This is probably the meaning here, ‘I shall be ruined, or destroyed.’ The reason of this, he immediately states.

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