Isaiah 64

Isaiah 64

1O that you would tear open the heavens and come down,[#Judg 5.5; Ps 144.5]

so that the mountains would quake at your presence—

2as when fire kindles brushwood[#Jer 5.22; #64.2 64.1 in Heb]

and the fire causes water to boil—

to make your name known to your adversaries,

so that the nations might tremble at your presence!

3When you did awesome deeds that we did not expect,[#Ps 65.5; 66.3, 5; 106.22]

you came down; the mountains quaked at your presence.

4From ages past no one has heard,[#Isa 40.31; 1 Cor 2.9]

no ear has perceived,

no eye has seen any God besides you,

who works for those who wait for him.

5You meet those who gladly do right,[#Ex 20.24; Isa 56.1; 63.7, 10]

those who remember you in your ways.

But you were angry, and we sinned;

because you hid yourself we transgressed.

6We have all become like one who is unclean,[#Ps 90.5, 6; Isa 6.5; 46.12; 50.1]

and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy cloth.

We all fade like a leaf,

and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.

7There is no one who calls on your name[#Isa 9.18; 27.5; 54.8; 59.4]

or attempts to take hold of you,

for you have hidden your face from us

and have delivered us into the hand of our iniquity.

8Yet, O Lord , you are our Father;[#Isa 29.16; 60.21; 63.16]

we are the clay, and you are our potter;

we are all the work of your hand.

9Do not be exceedingly angry, O Lord ,[#Isa 43.25; 60.10; 63.8]

and do not remember iniquity forever.

Now consider, we are all your people.

10Your holy cities have become a wilderness;[#Isa 6.11]

Zion has become a wilderness,

Jerusalem a desolation.

11Our holy and beautiful house,[#Ps 74.5–7; Isa 7.23; 63.18]

where our ancestors praised you,

has been burned by fire,

and all our pleasant places have become ruins.

12After all this, will you restrain yourself, O Lord ?[#Ps 83.1; Isa 42.14]

Will you keep silent and punish us so severely?

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition, copyright © 2021 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Published by: National Council of the Churches of Christ