Isaiah 64:1–12

¹O if only you had ripped the heavens apart, that you had come down, that on account of you the very mountains had quaked,²as when a fire ignites the brushwood, [and] the fire makes the very water boil up, in order to make your name known to your adversaries, that on account of you the nations might be agitated!³When you did fear‐inspiring things for which we could not hope, you came down. On account of you the mountains themselves quaked.⁴And from time long ago none have heard, nor have any given ear, nor has an eye itself seen a God, except you, that acts for the one that keeps in expectation of him.⁵You have met up with the one exulting and doing righteousness, those who keep remembering you in your own ways.

Look! You yourself became indignant, while we kept sinning—in them a long time, and should we be saved?⁶And we become like someone unclean, all of us, and all our acts of righteousness are like a garment for periods of menstruation; and we shall fade away like leafage, all of us, and our errors themselves will carry us away just like a wind.⁷And there is no one calling upon your name, no one rousing himself to lay hold on you; for you have concealed your face from us, and you cause us to melt by the power of our error.

⁸And now, O Jehovah, you are our Father. We are the clay, and you are our Potter; and all of us are the work of your hand.⁹Do not be indignant, O Jehovah, to the extreme, and do not forever remember [our] error. Look, now, please: we are all your people.¹⁰Your own holy cities have become a wilderness. Zion itself has become a sheer wilderness, Jerusalem a desolate waste.¹¹Our house of holiness and beauty, in which our forefathers praised you, has itself become something for burning in the fire; and every one of our desirable things has become a devastation.¹²In the face of these things will you continue keeping yourself in check, O Jehovah? Will you stay still and let us be afflicted to the extreme?