In the year that king Ozias died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and elevated: and his train filled the temple.2 Upon it stood the seraphims: the one had six wings, and the other had six wings: with two they covered his face, and with two they covered his feet, and with two they hew.3 And they cried one to another, and said: Holy, holy, holy, the Lord God of hosts, all the earth is full of his glory.4 And the lintels of the doors were moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.5 And I said: Woe is me, because I have held my peace; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people that hath unclean lips, and I have seen with my eyes the King the Lord of hosts.6 And one of the seraphims flew to me, and in his hand was a live coal, which he had taken with the tongs off the altar.7 And he touched my mouth, and said: Behold this hath touched thy lips, and thy iniquities shall be taken away, and thy sin shall be cleansed.8 And I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: Whom shall I send? and who shall go for us? And I said: Lo, here am I, send me.
The prophet had seen Christ and the glory of Christ in the vision in which he said, "I saw the Lord of hosts sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up," and what follows.
The Lord hath reigned, he is clothed with beauty: the Lord is clothed with strength, and hath girded himself. For he hath established the world which shall not be moved.1 The Lord hath reigned, he is clothed with beauty: the Lord is clothed with strength, and hath girded himself. For he hath established the world which shall not be moved.2 Thy throne is prepared from of old: thou art from everlasting.5 Thy testimonies are become exceedingly credible: holiness becometh thy house, O Lord, unto length of days.
To sit at the right hand of the Father is a mystery belonging to the incarnation. For it does not befit that incorporeal nature without the assumption of flesh; neither is the excellency of a heavenly seat sought for the divine nature but for the human. Thus it is said of him, "Your seat, O God, is prepared from thence forward; you are from everlasting." The seat, then, on which the Lord Jesus was to sit, was prepared from everlasting, "in whose name every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things on earth and things under the earth; and every tongue shall confess to him that Jesus is Lord in the glory of God the Father;" of whom also David says, "The Lord said to my Lord, Sit on my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool." Referring to these words the Lord in the Gospel said to the Pharisees, "If therefore David in spirit calls him Lord, how is he his Son?" By which [Jesus Christ] showed that according to the Spirit he was the Lord, according to the flesh he was the Son of David. Also the Lord says in another place, "Truly I say to you, henceforth you shall see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of the power of God." And the apostle Peter says of Christ, "Who is on the right hand of God, seated in the heavens." And Paul also, writing to the Ephesians, "According to the working of the might of his power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead and seated him on his right hand."
The disciple is not above the master, nor the servant above his lord.†25 It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the goodman of the house Beelzebub, how much more them of his household?26 Therefore fear them not. For nothing is covered that shall not be revealed: nor hid, that shall not be known.27 That which I tell you in the dark, speak ye in the light: and that which you hear in the ear, preach ye upon the housetops.28 And fear ye not them that kill the body, and are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him that can destroy both soul and body in hell.†29 Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and not one of them shall fall on the ground without your Father.†30 But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.31 Fear not therefore: better are you than many sparrows.32 Every one therefore that shall confess me before men, I will also confess him before my Father who is in heaven.33 But he that shall deny me before men, I will also deny him before my Father who is in heaven.
For the Lord, the Light eternal, the Captain of the faithful, the Parent of immortality, set before His disciples this solace of the sufferings that should come upon them, that we should embrace it as our glory when we are made like to our Lord in suffering; whence He says, The disciple is not above his master, nor the slave above his lord.
Therefore neither threatening, nor evil speaking, nor power of their enemies should move them, seeing the judgment-day will disclose how empty, how nought all these were.
Therefore they ought to inculcate constantly the knowledge of God, and the profound secret of evangelic doctrine, to be revealed by the light of preaching; having no fear of those who have power only over the body, but cannot reach the soul; Fear not those that kill the body, but cannot kill the soul.
Figuratively; That which is sold is our soul and body, and that to which it is sold, is sin. They then who sell two sparrows for a farthing, are they who sell themselves for the smallest sin, born for flight, and for reaching heaven with spiritual wings. (vid. Ps. 124:7.) Caught by the bait of present pleasures, and sold to the enjoyment of the world, they barter away their whole selves in such a market. It is of the will of God that one of them rather soar aloft; but the law proceeding according to God’s appointment decrees that one of them should fall. In like manner as, if they soared aloft they would become one spiritual body; so, when sold under sin, the soul gathers earthly matter from the pollution of vice, and there is made of them one body which is committed to earth.
For it is an unworthy task to number things that are to perish. Therefore that we should know that nothing of us should perish, we are told that our very hairs are numbered. No accident then that can befal our bodies is to be feared; thus He adds, Fear not, ye are better than many sparrows.
Or this, ye are better than many sparrows, teaches that the elect faithful are better than the multitude of the unbelieving, for the one fall to earth, the other fly to heaven.
This teaches us, that in what measure we have borne witness to Him upon earth, in the same shall we have Him to bear witness to us in heaven before the face of God the Father.
About CSB. A personal translation of the New Testament, rendered directly from the public-domain Greek in a literary style — not a scholarly critical edition, and not for liturgical or doctrinal authority. It is one reader's work, offered for enjoyment; where it matters, weigh it against an established translation. (Placeholder text — final wording to come.)