Isaiah 6:5

I said, “Too bad for me! I am destroyed, ¹  for my lips are contaminated by sin, ²  and I live among people whose lips are contaminated by sin. ³  My eyes have seen the king, the Lord who commands armies.” ⁴ 

Ex 4:10; Ex 6:12,30; Ex 33:20; Jud 6:22; Jud 13:22; Job 42:5,6; Isa 29:13; Isa 33:17; Jer 1:6; Jer 9:3-8; Eze 2:6-8; Eze 33:31; Da 10:6-8; Hab 3:16; Zec 3:1-7; Mt 12:34-37; Lu 5:8,9; Jas 3:1,2; Jas 3:6-10; Re 1:5-7; Re 1:16,17

¹ 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.”

² 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.

³ tn Heb “and among a nation unclean of lips I live.”

⁴ 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.