Five-minute study · Day 175 · Isaiah 6
Isaiah 6:2
A word worth stopping on: seraphim שָׂרָף saraph
Isaiah sees the LORD sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, his train filling the temple. And above the throne stand the seraphim. The word seraph means 'burning one.' These are the only creatures in Scripture described this way: six wings each, two covering the face, two covering the feet, two for flying. They do not stop speaking. 'Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts.' The doorposts shake. The temple fills with smoke. Isaiah collapses. 'Woe is me! for I am undone.'
Word study: seraphim
- Hebrew
- שָׂרָף
- Pronounced
- saraph
- Strong's
- H8314
- Definition
- Burning one, fiery one. Also used for fiery serpents (Numbers 21:6, 8; Deuteronomy 8:15). The plural seraphim designates the celestial beings in Isaiah 6.
Saraph comes from the root saraph, meaning 'to burn.' BDB lists two primary uses: the fiery serpents that attacked Israel in the wilderness (Numbers 21:6), and the celestial attendants of God's throne in Isaiah 6. The connection between the two has generated centuries of discussion.
In Numbers 21, God sends saraph serpents among the people as judgment. Their bite burns; the name describes the sensation of their venom. Moses makes a bronze saraph and sets it on a pole. Anyone bitten who looks at it lives. The same root, the same word, applied to creatures that kill and a mechanism that heals.
Isaiah's seraphim are described with extraordinary physical detail. Six wings: two covering the face (they cannot look directly at God's glory), two covering the feet (a Hebrew euphemism that may indicate covering the entire lower body in modesty before the divine presence), two for flight. They have hands (verse 6, one takes a coal from the altar), voices (they call to one another), and faces (covered though they are). The combination is unlike anything else in biblical angelology. Cherubim have four faces and four wings (Ezekiel 1). The living creatures of Revelation 4 echo both cherubim and seraphim. The seraphim are unique to Isaiah.
Keel's 'Symbolism of the Biblical World' connects the seraphim to Egyptian iconography. Egyptian uraei, winged cobras, guarded the pharaoh's throne. Representations from the New Kingdom show these creatures with wings, human features, and serpentine bodies flanking the royal seat. Isaiah, prophesying in the eighth century BC when Judah had extensive contact with Egypt, may have drawn on visual imagery his audience would have recognized: throne guardians, burning ones, protectors of the divine seat of power.
Historical context · Approximately 740 BC
The Year the King Died
Isaiah's vision occurs 'in the year that king Uzziah died.' The dating is deliberate. Uzziah had reigned for fifty-two years, one of the longest and most prosperous reigns in Judah's history. Under his rule, the nation expanded territory, rebuilt fortifications, equipped a standing army, and developed agricultural infrastructure. 2 Chronicles 26 catalogs his achievements with something close to admiration.
Then Uzziah entered the temple to burn incense, a privilege reserved for priests. Leprosy broke out on his forehead. He spent the rest of his life in quarantine, and his son Jotham administered the kingdom. The death of Uzziah marked the end of stability. Assyria under Tiglath-Pileser III was expanding aggressively. The geopolitical future was terrifying.
Isaiah sees his vision at this precise moment. The earthly throne is empty, and Isaiah sees the heavenly throne occupied. The contrast would have been immediate for the original audience. Uzziah is dead. God is seated, high and lifted up, his robe filling the temple. The earthly king overstepped his bounds and was struck down. The heavenly King receives worship from creatures who voluntarily cover their own faces.
The trisagion, 'Holy, holy, holy,' is the only attribute of God repeated three times in succession in Scripture. Love is never tripled. Justice is never tripled. Mercy is never tripled. Holiness is. The threefold repetition in Hebrew indicates the superlative: holy beyond all holiness. The seraphim are burning ones declaring the burning otherness of the God they attend. Their fire reflects his. The smoke, the shaking doorposts, Isaiah's undoing: all consequences of proximity to a holiness that consumes everything insufficient.
For reflection
Isaiah had been prophesying for years before this vision. He had already spoken for God. Yet one glimpse of the throne room and his response was 'I am undone.' When was the last time an encounter with God's holiness made you feel the distance between who you are and who he is?
The seraphim cover their faces. They are sinless, and they still cannot look.
Sources: BDB Lexicon; Keel, 'Symbolism of the Biblical World'; Oswalt, 'The Book of Isaiah 1-39' (NICOT); Williamson, 'Isaiah 6-12' (ICC)