1I wish you would open up your heavens and come down to us! I wish the mountains would tremble when you show your power!2Be like a fire that causes twigs to burn. It also makes water boil. So come down and make yourself known to your enemies. Cause the nations to shake with fear when they see your power!3Long ago you did some wonderful things we didn’t expect. You came down, and the mountains trembled when you showed your power.4No one’s ears have ever heard of a God like you. No one’s eyes have ever seen a God who is greater than you. No God but you acts for the good of those who trust in him.5You come to help those who enjoy doing what is right. You help those who thank you for teaching them how to live. But when we continued to disobey you, you became angry with us. So how can we be saved?6All of us have become like someone who is ‘unclean’. All the good things we do are like dirty rags to you. All of us are like leaves that have dried up. Our sins sweep us away like the wind.7No one prays to you. No one asks you for help. You have turned your face away from us. You have let us feel the effects of our sins.8LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay. You are the potter. Your hands made all of us.9Don’t be so angry with us, LORD. Don’t remember our sins anymore. Please have mercy on us. All of us belong to you.10Your sacred cities have become a desert. Even Zion is a desert. Jerusalem is a dry and empty place.11Our people of long ago used to praise you in our holy and glorious temple. But now it has been burned down. Everything we treasured has been destroyed.12LORD, won’t you help us even after everything that’s happened? Will you keep silent and punish us more than we can stand?
Isaiah 64
English Standard Version
1Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might quake at your presence— (Jud 5:5; 2Sa 22:10; Ps 18:9; Ps 144:5; Mic 1:4)2[1] as when fire kindles brushwood and the fire causes water to boil— to make your name known to your adversaries, and that the nations might tremble at your presence! (Jos 2:9)3When you did awesome things that we did not look for, you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence. (Ex 14:13; Ex 15:11)4From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a God besides you, who acts for those who wait for him. (Ps 31:19; 1Co 2:9)5You meet him who joyfully works righteousness, those who remember you in your ways. Behold, you were angry, and we sinned; in our sins we have been a long time, and shall we be saved?[2]6We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. (Ps 90:5; Isa 59:12)7There is no one who calls upon your name, who rouses himself to take hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us, and have made us melt in[3] the hand of our iniquities. (Isa 43:22; Ho 7:7)8But now, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand. (Isa 29:23; Isa 45:9; Isa 45:11; Isa 63:16; Ro 9:20)9Be not so terribly angry, O Lord, and remember not iniquity forever. Behold, please look, we are all your people. (Ps 74:1; Ps 79:8; Isa 57:16)10Your holy cities have become a wilderness; Zion has become a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation. (Ne 1:3; Ne 2:3)11Our holy and beautiful[4] house, where our fathers praised you, has been burned by fire, and all our pleasant places have become ruins. (2Ki 25:9; 2Ch 36:19; Ps 74:7; Hag 1:9; Hag 2:3)12Will you restrain yourself at these things, O Lord? Will you keep silent, and afflict us so terribly? (Isa 42:14; Zec 1:12)