Isaiah 64
1 Oh that you would rend the heavens, that you would come down, that the mountains might flow down at your presence,
O let the heavens be broken open and come down, so that the mountains may be shaking before you,
2 As when the melting fire burns, the fire causes the waters to boil, to make your name known to your adversaries, that the nations may tremble at your presence!
As 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;
3 When you did terrible things which we looked not for, you came down, the mountains flowed down at your presence.
While you do acts of power for which we are not looking, and which have not come to the ears of men in the past.
4 For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither has the eye seen, O God, beside you, what he has prepared for him that waits for him.
The ear has not had news of, or the eye seen, ... any God but you, working for the man who is waiting for him.
5 You meet him that rejoices and works righteousness, those that remember you in your ways: behold, you are angry; for we have sinned: in those is continuance, and we shall be saved.
Will 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.
6 But 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.
For 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.
7 And there is none that calls upon your name, that stirs up himself to take hold of you: for you have hid your face from us, and have consumed us, because of our iniquities.
And 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.
8 But now, O LORD, you are our father; we are the clay, and you our potter; and we all are the work of your hand.
But 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.
9 Be not angry very sore, O LORD, neither remember iniquity for ever: behold, see, we plead to you, we are all your people.
Be 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.
10 Your holy cities are a wilderness, Zion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation.
Your holy towns have become a waste, Zion has become a waste, Jerusalem is a mass of broken walls.
11 Our holy and our beautiful house, where our fathers praised you, is burned up with fire: and all our pleasant things are laid waste.
Our 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.
12 Will you refrain yourself for these things, O LORD? will you hold your peace, and afflict us very sore?
In view of all this, will you still do nothing, O Lord? will you keep quiet, and go on increasing our punishment?
