Isaiah 64:8

8 But now, LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay, and you are our potter. We are the work of your hands.

Isaiah 64:8 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 64:8

But now, O Lord, thou art our father
Notwithstanding all that we have done against thee, and thou hast done to us, the relation of a father continues; thou art our Father by creation and adoption; as he was in a particular manner to the Jews, to whom belonged the adoption; and therefore this relation is pleaded, that mercy might be shown them; and so the Targum,

``and thou, Lord, thy mercies towards us "are" many (or let them be many) as a father towards "his" children.''

We are the clay, and thou our potter:
respecting their original formation out of the dust of the earth; and so expressing humility in themselves, and yet ascribing greatness to God, who had curiously formed them, as the potter out of the clay forms vessels for various uses: it may respect their formation as a body politic and ecclesiastic, which arose from small beginnings, under the power and providence of God; see ( Deuteronomy 32:6 ) : and we all are the work of thy hand;
and therefore regard us, and destroy us not; as men do not usually destroy their own works: these relations to God, and circumstances in which they were as creatures, and as a body civil and ecclesiastic, are used as arguments for mercy and favour.

Isaiah 64:8 In-Context

6 We've all become unclean, and all our righteous acts are like permanently stained rags. All of us shrivel like leaves, and our sins carry us away like the wind.

7 No one calls on your name or tries to hold on to you. You have hidden your face from us. You have let us be ruined by our sins.

8 But now, LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay, and you are our potter. We are the work of your hands.

9 Don't be too angry, LORD. Don't remember our sin forever. Now look, we are all your people.

10 Your holy cities have become a desert. Zion has become a desert. Jerusalem is a wasteland.