Then said I, Woe [is] me! for I am undone; because I [am] a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.
Ver. 5. Then said I, Woe is me.] The ordinary fear of the faithful, when they had seen the Lord in his majesty. Gen 16:13 Deuteronomy 5:24 Heb 12:21 Jdg 13:22 How shall the wicked then be able to stand before him at the last day?
For I am undone.] I am a dead man, since no man shall see God and live. Exo 33:20
Because I am a man of unclean lips,] i.e., Of a foul nature and sinful practice; his original uncleanness, that filthy fountain and well spring of wickedness, made him cry out in this manner, Pollutior sum quam ut laudem Deum. Angels praise God, as I have heard them; but I, wicked wretch, am altogether unfit for such an employment. Infinite is the distance and disproportion between the high and holy God and me, a loathsome leper, a sordid wretch, &c. The nearer a man draweth to God, the more doth rottenness enter into his bones. Hab 3:16 "Now mine eyes have seen thee," saith Job, therefore I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes. Job 42:6 "Depart from me, Lord," saith Peter, "for I am a sinful man," Luk 5:8 Gr., A man a sinner - that is, a compound or hodgepodge of dirt and sin. Quis tu, Domine? quis ego? said one; Tu abyssus essentiae, veritatis, et gloriae: ego abyssus nihili, vanitatis et miseriae, Who art Thou, Lord? and what am I? Thou art an abyss of essence, truth, and glory, and I an abyss of nothing, of sin, and of misery.
And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.] Whose language I have learned, with whose sinful practices I have too much symbolised, and in whose punishments therefore I am like to be involved; for there is a double danger to a man by conversing with the ungodly; (1.) Infection of sin; (2.) Infliction of punishment. Lot was the world's miracle, who kept himself fresh in Sodom's salt water.