Isaiah 64:1-11

1 If only you would tear open the heavens and come down! Mountains would quake 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.

3 When you accomplished wonders beyond all our expectations; when you came down, mountains quaked 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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

9 Don't rage so fiercely, LORD; don't hold our sins against us forever, but gaze now on your people, all of us:

10 Your holy cities have become a wilderness; Zion has become a wilderness, Jerusalem a wasteland.

11 Our holy, glorious house, where our ancestors praised you, has gone up in flames; all that we treasured has become a ruin.

Isaiah 64:1-11 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

• [a]. 63:19b in Heb
• [b]. 64:1 in Heb
• [c]. Heb uncertain
• [d]. Heb uncertain
• [e]. Heb uncertain
• [f]. LXX, cf Syr, Tg, Vulg; MT melted