6.4
The Book of Isaiah 6.4 · The house filled with smoke6.4The house filled with smoke
At the seraphs' cry the temple itself reacts. The building shakes and fills with smoke.
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אַמּוֹת1
ʾammôṯ
The bases ofdoor-bases of
הַסִּפִּים2
has-sippîm
the thresholds
וַיָּנֻעוּ3
wa-yyānuʿû
shookand they shook
מִקּוֹל4
mi-qqôl
at the voice offrom the voice of
הַקּוֹרֵא5
ha-qqôrēʾ
the one callingthe caller
, וְהַבַּיִת6
wə-ha-bbayiṯ
and the house
יִמָּלֵא7
yimmālēʾ
was filledit is filled
with
עָשָׁן׃8
ʿāšān
smoke
. The bases of the thresholds shook at the voice of the one calling, and the house was filled with smoke.
The bases of the thresholds shook at the voice of the one calling, and the house was filled with smoke.
6.5
The Book of Isaiah 6.5 · Woe to me, I am undone6.5Woe to me, I am undone
Isaiah responds to what he has seen. Facing the holy King, he is overwhelmed by his own unworthiness and that of his people.
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And I said, “Woe to me, for I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and in the midst of a people of unclean lips I dwell; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.”
The doorposts shake at a voice, and smoke fills the house: the signs of Sinai, where the mountain smoked and quaked (Exodus 19:18), now inside the Temple. ʾAmmôṯ ha-ssippîm is literally “the cubits of the thresholds”; the Hebrew is unusual and the exact architecture is guessed at. The point is not. The building itself is shaken by the sound.