Isaiah 64

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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