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  • Isaiah 64

    64  If only you would tear open the heavens and come down!
        Mountains would quake before you
        like fire igniting brushwood or making water boil.
    If you would make your name known to your enemies,
        the nations would tremble in your presence.

    When you accomplished wonders beyond all our expectations;
        when you came down, mountains quaked before you.
    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!
    You look after those who gladly do right;
        they will praise you for your ways.
    But you were angry when we sinned;
        you hid yourself when we did wrong.
    We have all become like the unclean;
        all our righteous deeds are like a menstrual rag.
    All of us wither like a leaf;
        our sins, like the wind, carry us away.
    No one calls on your name;
        no one bothers to hold on to you,
        for you have hidden yourself from us,
        and have handed us over to our sin.

    But now, Lord, you are our father.
        We are the clay, and you are our potter.
        All of us are the work of your hand.
    Don’t rage so fiercely, Lord;
        don’t hold our sins against us forever,
        but gaze now on your people, all of us:
    10     Your holy cities have become a wilderness;
        Zion has become a wilderness, Jerusalem a wasteland.
    11 Our holy, glorious house,
        where our ancestors praised you,
        has gone up in flames;
        all that we treasured has become a ruin.
    12 After all this, will you hold back, Lord?
        Will you keep silent and torment us so terribly?