Isaiah 64:2-12

2 as fire kindles brushwood, [the] fire causes water to boil, to make your name known to your adversaries, [that the] nations might tremble from your {presence}.

3 When you did terrible deeds [which] we did not {expect}, you came down; [the] mountains quaked because of your {presence}.

4 And since ancient [times] they have not heard, have not listened, no eye has seen a God except you; he {acts} for the one who waits for him.

5 You meet with the one who rejoices, one who does righteousness. In your ways they remember you. Look! You were angry and we sinned against them [in] ancient [times] and we were saved.

6 And we all have become like the unclean, and all our deeds of justice like a menstrual cloth, And we all wither like [a] leaf, and our iniquities take us away like the wind.

7 And there is no one who calls on your name, who pulls himself up to keep hold of you, for you have hidden your face from us, and melted us into the hand of our iniquity.

8 Yet now Yahweh, you [are] our father; we [are] the clay and you [are] our {potter}, and we all [are] the work of your hand.

9 You must not be exceedingly angry, Yahweh, and you must not remember iniquity forever! Look! Behold, now! We all [are] your people!

10 {Your holy cities} have become a wilderness; Zion has become a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation.

11 {Our holy and beautiful temple}, where our ancestors praised you has {been burned} [by] fire, and all our precious objects have become ruins.

12 Will you control yourself because of these, Yahweh? Will you be silent? And will you oppress us exceedingly?

Isaiah 64:2-12 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

• [a]. Isaiah 64:2-12 in the English Bible is 64:1-11 in the Hebrew Bible
• [b]. Literally "face"
• [c]. Literally "await"
• [d]. Literally "face"
• [e]. Literally "makes"
• [f]. Or "him"
• [g]. Literally "one who fashions"
• [h]. Literally "The cities of your holiness"
• [i]. Literally "the house of our holiness and our beauty"
• [j]. Or "fathers"
• [k]. Literally "been for burning"
• [l]. Hebrew "ruin"