Isaiah

64 Would that thou hadst rent the heavens, hadst come down, At thy presence had mountains quaked:

2 As fire kindleth brushwood, [As] fire causeth water to boil [So] if thou wouldst make known thy Name to thine adversaries At thy presence nations would tremble.

3 When thou didst fearful things we could not expect Thou camest down, at thy presence mountains quaked.

4 Although from age-past times It was never heard, It was not perceived by the ear,—Neither did the eye ever see—That a god besides thee could work for the man who waited for him

5 Yet didst thou meet Him who was rejoicing and working righteousness, Even them who in thy ways remembered thee,—Lo! thou hast been vexed And truly we had sinned, Among them was [the prospect of] an age [to come], That we might be saved.

6 But we have become as one unclean all of us, And as a garment polluted were all our righteous doings,—And so we faded like a leaf all of us, And our iniquity as a wind carried us away;

7 And there was none To call upon thy Name, To rouse himself to lay firm hold on thee,—For thou hadst hidden thy face from us, And hadst made us despond by means of our iniquity.

8 But now O Yahweh our father thou art,—We are the clay, and thou art our potter, Yea the work of thy hand are we all:

9 Do not be indignant, O Yahweh, so very greatly, Neither perpetually do thou recall iniquity,—Lo! look around, we pray thee . . . thy people are we all.

10 Thy holy cities have become a wilderness,—Zion a wilderness hath become, Jerusalem a desolation!

11 Our holy and our beautiful house Where our fathers praised thee, Hath become a conflagration,—And all our delightful places are in ruins!

12 In view of these things wilt thou restrain thyself, O Yahweh? Wilt thou hold thy peace and humble us so very greatly?