Isaiah 6: “Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts”

Isaiah's call in the temple

The chapter opens with a date: “In the year that king Uzziah died”. Uzziah had reigned over Judah for about fifty years, and his death, usually placed around 740 BC, left the nation uneasy. In that moment Isaiah sees the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, with the train of his robe filling the temple.

Above the throne stand seraphim, a Hebrew word linked to burning. Each has six wings: two cover the face, two cover the feet, and two are for flying. They call to one another, and the doorposts shake and the house fills with smoke.

What does “Holy, holy, holy” mean?

Hebrew often repeats a word to intensify it, but saying it three times is rare, and it makes holiness the supreme description of God in this vision. Holy means set apart, utterly other, pure in a way that nothing else is. The second half of the verse, not on our print, adds that the whole earth is full of his glory: the God who is set apart is also present everywhere.

“LORD of hosts” refers to God as commander of the armies of heaven, the angels and the heavenly bodies. It is a title of majesty that appears often in Isaiah.

Isaiah's reaction is not delight but alarm: woe is me, I am undone, a man of unclean lips. One of the seraphim touches his mouth with a live coal from the altar and declares his sin taken away. Then God asks, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?”, and Isaiah answers, “Here am I; send me.” Holiness first overwhelms him, then cleanses him, then sends him out.

From the temple to the liturgy

The words passed into Jewish prayer as the Kedushah and into Christian worship as the Sanctus, sung or said in the Catholic Mass, the Orthodox Divine Liturgy, and Anglican and Lutheran services. Reginald Heber's hymn “Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty” draws on them and is often sung on Trinity Sunday, since many Christians hear in the threefold cry an echo of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. That is why our print pairs the verse with the Holy Trinity.

The same song in Revelation

In Revelation 4, John sees four living creatures with six wings around God's throne, singing day and night a version of the same words. John 12 says that Isaiah saw Christ's glory, referring to this vision.