Isaiah 64
1 “[Yahweh], I wish that you would tear open the sky and come down, and cause the mountains to shake in your presence.
Did You not tear the heavens? You came down, Mountains flowed from Your presence,
2 [Be] like a fire that burns twigs and causes water to boil! [Come down] in order that your enemies will know who you are, and the [people of other] nations will tremble in your presence.
(As fire kindles stubble—Fire causes water to boil), To make Your Name known to Your adversaries, Nations tremble from Your presence.
3 You have done awesome things which we were not expecting you to do; the mountains shook when you came down [at Horeb Mountain].
In Your doing fearful things [that] we do not expect, You came down, Mountains flowed from Your presence.
4 Since (long ago/the world began), no one [SYN] has [ever] seen or heard about a God like you; you help those who (depend on/trust in) you.
Even from antiquity [men] have not heard, They have not given ear, Eye has not seen a God except You, He works for those waiting for Him.
5 You help those who joyfully do what is right, those who conduct their lives as you want them to. But [we did not do that]; we continued to sin, and so you became angry with us. We have been sinning for a long time, so only if we continually do what you want us to do will we be saved.
You have met with the rejoicer And the doer of righteousness, In Your ways they remember You, Behold, You have been angry when we sin, By them [is] continuance, and we are saved.
6 We have all become people who are not fit to worship you; all of the good things that we have done are only like [SIM] filthy/blood-stained rags. Because of our sins, we are like [SIM] leaves that dry up and are blown away by the wind.
And we are as unclean—all of us, And all our righteous acts [are] as garments of menstruation; And we fade as a leaf—all of us. And our iniquities take us away as wind.
7 None [of our people] worships you, and no one is completely dedicated to [IDM] you. You have turned away from us. [It is as though] you have caused us to be forced to continue our sinful behavior.
And there is none calling on Your Name, Stirring himself up to lay hold on You, For You have hid Your face from us, And You melt us away by our iniquities.
8 Yahweh, you are our father. We are [like] [MET] clay, and you created us, [like] [MET] a potter [creates pottery].
And now, O YHWH, You [are] our Father, We [are] the clay, and You [are] our Framer, And the work of Your hand—all of us.
9 Yahweh, do not continue to be angry [with us]; do not keep thinking about [our] sins forever. Do not forget that we are all your people.
Do not be angry, O YHWH, very severely, Nor remember iniquity forever, Behold, look attentively, we implore You, We [are] all Your people.
10 [All of] your towns [in Judah] have become like [MET] deserts; [even] Jerusalem has been destroyed.
Your holy cities have been a wilderness, Zion has been a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation.
11 Your glorious temple on Zion Hill, where our ancestors worshiped you, has been destroyed by fire. And all our [other] beautiful things have been ruined.
Our holy and our beautiful house, Where our fathers praised You, Has become burned with fire, And all our desirable things have become a ruin.
12 Yahweh, you see all those things, so we worry that you will refrain [from helping us], and that you will cause us to suffer much more.
Do You refrain Yourself for these, YHWH? You are silent, and afflict us very severely!
