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.
Oh that thou wouldst rend the heavens, that thou wouldst come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy 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 when] the melting fire burneth, the fire causeth the waters to boil, to make thy name known to thy adversaries, [that] the nations may tremble at thy 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].
When thou didst terrible things [which] we looked not for, thou camest down, the mountains flowed down at thy 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.
For since the beginning of the world [men] have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, besides thee, [what] he hath prepared for him that waiteth 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.
Thou 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.
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.
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.
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 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.
8 Yahweh, you are our father. We are [like] [MET] clay, and you created us, [like] [MET] a potter [creates pottery].
But now, O LORD, thou [art] our father; we [are] the clay, and thou our potter; and we all [are] the work of thy hand.
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.
Be not very wroth, O LORD, neither remember iniquity for ever: behold, see, we beseech thee, we [are] all thy people.
10 [All of] your towns [in Judah] have become like [MET] deserts; [even] Jerusalem has been destroyed.
Thy holy cities are a wilderness, Zion is 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 thee, is burned with fire: and all our pleasant things are laid waste.
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.
Wilt thou refrain thyself for these [things], O LORD? wilt thou hold thy peace, and grievously afflict us?
