Isaiah, 64

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

1. As when fire sets brushwood ablaze and causes water to boil, make the nations know your name, and your enemies tremble.

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!

2. Let them witness your stunning deeds.

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

3. No one has ever heard or perceived, no eye has ever seen a God besides you who works for those who trust in him.

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.

4. You have confounded those who acted righteously and who joyfully kept your ways in mind. You are angry with our sins, yet conceal them and we shall be saved.

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.

5. All of us have become like the unclean; all our good deeds are like polluted garments; we have all withered like leaves, blown away by our iniquities.

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.

6. There is no one who calls upon your name, no one who rouses himself to lay hold of you. For you have hidden your face, you have given us up to the power of our evil acts.

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.

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

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.

8. Do not let your anger go too far, O Yahweh, or think of our sins forever. See, we all are your people!

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

9. Your holy cities have become a wilderness, Zion has become a wasteland, Jerusalem a desolation.

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

10. Our holy and glorious house, where our fathers used to pray to you, has been razed to the ground, and all that we treasure lies in ruins.

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.

11. Can you still remain unmoved, O Yahweh, before all this? Will you punish us further with your silence?

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

12.