Isaiah 64

1. Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down, 1 that the mountains might quake at your presence—

2. [a] as when fire kindles brushwood 2 and the fire causes water to boil— 2 to make your name known to your adversaries, 2 and that the nations might tremble at your presence!

3. When you did awesome things that we did not look for, 3 you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence.

4. From of old no one has heard 4 or perceived by the ear, 4 no eye has seen a God besides you, 4 who acts for those who wait for him.

5. You meet him who joyfully works righteousness, 5 those who remember you in your ways. 5 Behold, you were angry, and we sinned; 5 in our sins we have been a long time, and shall we be saved?[b]

6. We have all become like one who is unclean, 6 and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. 6 We all fade like a leaf, 6 and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.

7. There is no one who calls upon your name, 7 who rouses himself to take hold of you; 7 for you have hidden your face from us, 7 and have made us melt in[c] the hand of our iniquities.

8. But now, O Lord, you are our Father; 8 we are the clay, and you are our potter; 8 we are all the work of your hand.

9. Be not so terribly angry, O Lord, 9 and remember not iniquity forever. 9 Behold, please look, we are all your people.

10. Your holy cities have become a wilderness; 10 Zion has become a wilderness, 10 Jerusalem a desolation.

11. Our holy and beautiful[d] house, 11 where our fathers praised you, 11 has been burned by fire, 11 and all our pleasant places have become ruins.

12. Will you restrain yourself at these things, O Lord? 12 Will you keep silent, and afflict us so terribly?

Footnotes:
a. Isaiah 64:2: Ch 64:1 in Hebrew
b. Isaiah 64:5: Or in your ways is continuance, that we might be saved
c. Isaiah 64:7: Masoretic Text; Septuagint, Syriac, Targum have delivered us into
d. Isaiah 64:11: Or holy and glorious