Isaiah 64

Modern

Literal

A Prayer for God’s Power

¹If only You would rend the heavens and come down,

so that mountains would quake at Your presence,

¹If only You would rend the heavens and come down; at Your presence the mountains would shake,

²as fire kindles the brushwood

and causes the water to boil,

to make Your name known to Your enemies,

so that the nations will tremble at Your presence!

²like the kindling of brushwood by the fire—the fire boils the waters—to make known Your name to Your adversaries, that before Your face the nations will tremble,

³When You did awesome works that we did not expect,

You came down, and the mountains trembled at Your presence.

³at Your doing fearsome things we could not have expected! You come down, before Your face the mountains shake.

⁴From ancient times no one has heard,

no ear has perceived,

no eye has seen any God besides You,

who acts on behalf of those who wait for Him.^a

⁴And from age past they have not heard, and they have not given ear; no eye has seen any God besides You, who acts for the one waiting for Him.

⁵You 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?

⁵You meet the one rejoicing and doing righteousness; in Your ways they remember You. Behold, You were angry, and we had sinned; in them is continuance, then will we be saved?

⁶Each of us has become like something unclean,

and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags;^a

we all wither like a leaf,

and our iniquities carry us away like the wind.

⁶And all of us have become like an unclean one, all our righteous acts are as a filthy rag; and all of us wither like the leaf, and our iniquities carry us away like the wind.

⁷No one calls on Your name

or strives to take hold of You.

For You have hidden Your face from us

and delivered us into the hand^a of our iniquity.

⁷And no one is calling on Your name, stirring himself up to take hold of You; for You have hidden Your face from us, and delivered us into the hand of our iniquities.

⁸But now, O LORD, You are our Father;

we are the clay, and You are the potter;

we are all the work of Your hand.

⁸And now, O YHWH You are our Father; we are the clay, and You the One forming us, and we are all the work of Your hand.

⁹Do not be angry, O LORD, beyond measure;

do not remember our iniquity forever.

Oh, look upon us, we pray;

we are all Your people!

⁹Do not be angry, O YHWH, beyond measure, and do not remember our iniquity forever! Behold, please, look; we are all Your people!

¹⁰Your holy cities have become a wilderness.

Zion has become a wasteland and Jerusalem a desolation.

¹⁰Your holy Cities have become a wilderness; Zion has become a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation.

¹¹Our holy and beautiful temple,

where our fathers praised You,

has been burned with fire,

and all that was dear to us lies in ruins.

¹¹And our holy and our beautiful house, where our fathers praised You, has been burned with fire; and all our desirable things are laid waste.

¹²After all this, O LORD,

will You restrain Yourself?

Will You keep silent

and afflict us beyond measure?

¹²At these will You restrain Yourself, O YHWH? Will You keep silent, and afflict us beyond measure?