Isaiah 64

¹O let the heavens be broken open and come down, so that the mountains may be shaking before you,

²As when fire puts the brushwood in flames, or as when water is boiling from the heat of the fire: to make your name feared by your haters, so that the nations may be shaking before you;

³While you do acts of power for which we are not looking, and which have not come to the ears of men in the past.

⁴The ear has not had news of, or the eye seen, ... any God but you, working for the man who is waiting for him.

⁵Will you not have mercy on him who takes pleasure in doing righteousness, even on those who keep in mind your ways? Truly you were angry, and we went on doing evil, and sinning against you in the past.

⁶For we have all become like an unclean person, and all our good acts are like a dirty robe: and we have all become old like a dead leaf, and our sins, like the wind, take us away.

⁷And there is no one who makes prayer to your name, or who is moved to keep true to you: for your face is veiled from us, and you have given us into the power of our sins.

⁸But now, O Lord, you are our father; we are the earth, and you are our maker; and we are all the work of your hand.

⁹Be not very angry, O Lord, and do not keep our sins in mind for ever: give ear to our prayer, for we are all your people.

¹⁰Your holy towns have become a waste, Zion has become a waste, Jerusalem is a mass of broken walls.

¹¹Our holy and beautiful house, where our fathers gave praise to you, is burned with fire; and all the things of our desire have come to destruction.

¹²In view of all this, will you still do nothing, O Lord? will you keep quiet, and go on increasing our punishment?

Isaiah 64

¹Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence,

²As when the melting fire burneth, the fire causeth the waters to boil, to make thy name known to thine adversaries, that the nations may tremble at thy presence!

³When thou didst terrible things which we looked not for, thou camest down, the mountains flowed down at thy presence.

⁴For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him.

⁵Thou meetest him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness, those that remember thee in thy ways: behold, thou art wroth; for we have sinned: in those is continuance, and we shall be saved.

⁶But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.

⁷And there is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee: for thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast consumed us, because of our iniquities.

⁸But now, O Lord, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand.

⁹Be not wroth very sore, O Lord, neither remember iniquity for ever: behold, see, we beseech thee, we are all thy people.

¹⁰Thy holy cities are a wilderness, Zion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation.

¹¹Our holy and our beautiful house, where our fathers praised thee, is burned up with fire: and all our pleasant things are laid waste.

¹²Wilt thou refrain thyself for these things, O Lord? wilt thou hold thy peace, and afflict us very sore?