Isa 64 | BSB | STEP | If only You would rend the heavens and come down, so that mountains would quake at Your presence,

Isaiah 64

A Prayer for God's Power

1 If only You would rend the heavens and come down, so that mountains would quake at Your presence, 2 as fire kindles the brushwood [and] causes the water to boil, to make Your name known to Your enemies, so that nations will tremble at Your presence! 3 When You did awesome works that we did not expect, You came down, and the mountains trembled at Your presence. 4 From ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God but You, who acts on behalf of those who wait for Him. 5 You welcome those who gladly do right, who remember Your ways. Surely You were angry, for we sinned. How can we be saved if we remain in our sins? 6 All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like a polluted garment; we all wither like a leaf, and our iniquities carry us away like the wind. 7 No one calls on Your name [or] strives to take hold of You. For You have hidden Your face from us and made us melt in the hand ^{▼▼MT; LXX, Syriac, Targum have delivered us into the hand} of our iniquity. 8 But now, O LORD, You are our Father; we are the clay, and You are the potter; we are all the work of Your hand. 9 Do not be angry, O LORD, beyond measure; do not remember our iniquity forever. Oh, look upon us, we pray; we are all Your people! 10 Your holy cities have become a wilderness; Zion has become a wasteland, Jerusalem a desolation. 11 Our holy and beautiful temple, where our fathers praised You, has been burned with fire, and all that was dear to us lies in ruins. 12 After all this, O LORD, will You restrain Yourself? Will You keep silent and afflict us beyond measure?