Isaiah, 64

1. As when brushwood is set ablaze, or fire makes the water boil! Thus your name would be made known to your enemies and the nations would tremble before you,

1. as fire sets brushwood alight, as fire makes water boil -- to make your name known to your foes; the nations would tremble at your presence,

2. While you wrought awesome deeds we could not hope for,

2. at the unexpected miracles you would do. (Oh, that you would come down, in your presence the mountains would quake!)

3. such as they had not heard of from of old. No ear has ever heard, no eye ever seen, any God but you doing such deeds for those who wait for him.

3. Never has anyone heard, no ear has heard, no eye has seen any god but you act like this for the sake of those who trust him.

4. Would that you might meet us doing right, that we were mindful of you in our ways! Behold, you are angry, and we are sinful;

4. You come to meet those who are happy to act uprightly; keeping your ways reminds them of you. Yes, you have been angry and we have been sinners; now we persist in your ways and we shall be saved.

5. all of us have become like unclean men, all our good deeds are like polluted rags; We have all withered like leaves, and our guilt carries us away like the wind.

5. We have all been like unclean things and our upright deeds like filthy rags. We wither, all of us, like leaves, and all our misdeeds carry us off like the wind.

6. There is none who calls upon your name, who rouses himself to cling to you; For you have hidden your face from us and have delivered us up to our guilt.

6. There is no one to invoke your name, to rouse himself to hold fast to you, for you have hidden your face from us and given us up to the power of our misdeeds.

7. Yet, O LORD, you are our father; we are the clay and you the potter: we are all the work of your hands.

7. And yet, Yahweh, you are our Father; we the clay and you our potter, all of us are the work of your hands.

8. Be not so very angry, LORD, keep not our guilt forever in mind; look upon us, who are all your people.

8. Yahweh, do not let your anger go too far and do not remember guilt for ever. Look, please, we are all your people;

9. Your holy cities have become a desert, Zion is a desert, Jerusalem a waste.

9. your holy cities have become a desert, Zion has become a desert, Jerusalem a wasteland.

10. Our holy and glorious temple in which our fathers praised you Has been burned with fire; all that was dear to us is laid waste.

10. Our holy and glorious Temple, in which our ancestors used to praise you, has been burnt to the ground; all our delight lies in ruins.

11. Can you hold back, O LORD, after all this? Can you remain silent, and afflict us so severely?

11. Yahweh, can you restrain yourself at all this? Will you stay silent and afflict us beyond endurance?