Isaiah 64:1-8

1 ^[a] If only You would tear the heavens open [and] come down, so that mountains would quake at Your presence-

2 ^[b]as fire kindles the brushwood, and fire causes water to boil- to make Your name known to Your enemies, so that nations will tremble at Your presence!

3 When You did awesome deeds that we did not expect, You came down, and the mountains quaked at Your presence.

4 From ancient times no one has heard, no one has listened, no eye has seen any God except You, who acts on behalf of the one who waits for Him.^[c]

5 You welcome the one who joyfully does what is right; they remember You in Your ways. But we have sinned, and You were angry; we will remain in Your ways^[d] and be saved.

6 All of us have become like something unclean, and all our righteous acts are like a polluted^[e] garment; all of us wither like a leaf, and our iniquities carry us away like the wind.

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^[f][g]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.

Isaiah 64:1-8 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]. Isa 63:19b in Hb
• [b]. Isa 64:1 in Hb
• [c]. 1 Co 2:9
• [d]. Lit in them
• [e]. Lit menstrual
• [f]. LXX, Syr, Vg, Tg read and delivered us into the hand of
• [g]. Lit melt by the hand