Isaiah, 64

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,

1. Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence,

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

2. As [when] the melting fire burneth, the fire causeth the waters to boil, to make thy name known to thine adversaries, [that] the nations may tremble at thy presence!

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.

3. When thou didst terrible things [which] we looked not for, thou camest down, the mountains flowed down at thy presence.

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.

4. For since the beginning of the world [men] have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, [what] he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him.

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.

5. Thou meetest him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness, [those that] remember thee in thy ways: behold, thou art wroth; for we have sinned: in those is continuance, and we shall be saved.

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.

6. But we are all as an unclean [thing], and all our righteousnesses [are] as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.

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

7. And [there is] none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee: for thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast consumed us, because of our iniquities.

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

8. But now, O LORD, thou [art] our father; we [are] the clay, and thou our potter; and we all [are] the work of thy hand.

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

9. Be not wroth very sore, O LORD, neither remember iniquity for ever: behold, see, we beseech thee, we [are] all thy people.

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.

10. Thy holy cities are a wilderness, Zion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation.

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

11. Our holy and our beautiful house, where our fathers praised thee, is burned up with fire: and all our pleasant things are laid waste.

12.

12. Wilt thou refrain thyself for these [things], O LORD? wilt thou hold thy peace, and afflict us very sore?