Isaiah 64:1-11

1 ¹Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down, ²that the mountains might quake at your presence—

2 ^[a] as when fire kindles brushwood and the fire causes water to boil— ³to make your name known to your adversaries, and that the nations might tremble at your presence!

3 ⁴When you did awesome things that we did not look for, you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence.

4 ⁵From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, ⁶no eye has seen a God besides you, who acts for those who wait for him.

5 You meet him who joyfully works righteousness, those who remember you in your ways. Behold, you were angry, and we sinned; in our sins we have been a long time, and shall we be saved? ^[b]

6 ⁷We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. ⁸We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.

7 ⁹There is no one who calls upon your name, who rouses himself to take hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us, and have made us melt in^[c] the hand of our iniquities.

8 ¹⁰But now, O Lord, you are our Father; ¹¹we are the clay, and you are our potter; ¹²we are all the work of your hand.

9 ¹³Be not so terribly angry, O Lord, ¹⁴and remember not iniquity forever. Behold, please look, we are all your people.

10 ¹⁵Your holy cities have become a wilderness; Zion has become a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation.

11 ¹⁶Our holy and beautiful^[d] house, where our fathers praised you, has been burned by fire, and all our pleasant places have become ruins.

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.

Cross References

• 1. 64:1 [2 Sam. 22:10; Ps. 18:9; 144:5]
• 2. 64:1 Judg. 5:5; Mic. 1:4
• 3. 64:2 [Josh. 2:9, 10]
• 4. 64:3 [Ex. 14:13; 15:11]
• 5. 64:4 [Ps. 31:19]
• 6. 64:4 [1 Cor. 2:9]
• 7. 64:6 See ch. 59:12-15
• 8. 64:6 Ps. 90:5, 6
• 9. 64:7 ch. 43:22; Hos. 7:7
• 10. 64:8 ch. 63:16
• 11. 64:8 ch. 45:9; Rom. 9:20, 21
• 12. 64:8 ch. 29:23; 45:11
• 13. 64:9 [ch. 57:16; Ps. 74:1, 2]
• 14. 64:9 Ps. 79:8
• 15. 64:10 Neh. 1:3; 2:3
• 16. 64:11 Hag. 1:9; 2:3; [2 Kgs. 25:9; 2 Chr. 36:19; Ps. 74:7]

Footnotes

• [a] 64:2 Ch 64:1 in Hebrew
• [b] 64:5 Or 'in your ways is continuance, that we might be saved'
• [c] 64:7 Masoretic Text; Septuagint, Syriac, Targum 'have delivered us into'
• [d] 64:11 Or 'holy and glorious'