Isaiah 64:7-12

7 No one calls on Your name, striving to take hold of You. For You have hidden Your face from us and made us melt because of[a][b]our iniquity.
8 Yet Lord, You are our Father; we are the clay, and You are our potter; we all are the work of Your hands.
9 Lord, do not be terribly angry or remember [our] iniquity forever. Please look-all of us are Your people!
10 Your holy cities have become a wilderness; Zion has become a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation.[c]
11 Our holy and beautiful[d] temple, where our fathers praised You, has been burned with fire, and all that was dear to us lies in ruins.
12 Lord, after all this, will You restrain Yourself? Will You keep silent and afflict severely?

Isaiah 64:7-12 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO ISAIAH 64

The prayer of the church is continued in this chapter; in which she prays for some visible display of the power and presence of God, as in times past, Isa 64:1-3, and the rather, since unheard of and unseen things were prepared by the Lord for his people; and it was his usual way to meet those that were truly religious, Isa 64:4,5, and she acknowledges her sins and transgressions; the imperfections of her own righteousness, and remissness in duty, Isa 64:5-7, pleads relation to God, and implores his mercy, Isa 64:8,9, represents the desolate condition of Judea, Zion, Jerusalem, and the temple, and entreats divine commiseration, Isa 64:10-12.

Footnotes 4

  • [a]. LXX, Syr, Vg, Tg read and delivered us into the hand of
  • [b]. Lit melt by the hand
  • [c]. Isa 62:4
  • [d]. Or glorious; Isa 60:7
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