Common English Bible CEB
New International Version NIV
1 If only you would tear open the heavens and come down! Mountains would quake before you
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Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before you!
2 like fire igniting brushwood or making water boil. If you would make your name known to your enemies, the nations would tremble in your presence.
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As when fire sets twigs ablaze and causes water to boil, come down to make your name known to your enemies and cause the nations to quake before you!
3 When you accomplished wonders beyond all our expectations; when you came down, mountains quaked before you.
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For when you did awesome things that we did not expect, you came down, and the mountains trembled before you.
4 From ancient times, no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any god but you who acts on behalf of those who wait for him!
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Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him.
5 You look after those who gladly do right; they will praise you for your ways. But you were angry when we sinned; you hid yourself when we did wrong.
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You come to the help of those who gladly do right, who remember your ways. But when we continued to sin against them, you were angry. How then can we be saved?
6 We have all become like the unclean; all our righteous deeds are like a menstrual rag. All of us wither like a leaf; our sins, like the wind, carry us away.
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All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.
7 No one calls on your name; no one bothers to hold on to you, for you have hidden yourself from us, and have handed us over to our sin.
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No one calls on your name or strives to lay hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us and have given us over to our sins.
8 But now, LORD, you are our father. We are the clay, and you are our potter. All of us are the work of your hand.
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Yet you, LORD, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.
9 Don't rage so fiercely, LORD; don't hold our sins against us forever, but gaze now on your people, all of us:
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Do not be angry beyond measure, LORD; do not remember our sins forever. Oh, look on us, we pray, for we are all your people.
10 Your holy cities have become a wilderness; Zion has become a wilderness, Jerusalem a wasteland.
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Your sacred cities have become a wasteland; even Zion is a wasteland, Jerusalem a desolation.
11 Our holy, glorious house, where our ancestors praised you, has gone up in flames; all that we treasured has become a ruin.
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Our holy and glorious temple, where our ancestors praised you, has been burned with fire, and all that we treasured lies in ruins.
12 After all this, will you hold back, LORD? Will you keep silent and torment us so terribly?
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After all this, LORD, will you hold yourself back? Will you keep silent and punish us beyond measure?
Copyright © 2011 Common English Bible
Scripture quoted by permission. Quotations designated (NIV) are from THE HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica. All rights reserved worldwide.