Isaiah 64:8

8 Still, God, you are our Father. We're the clay and you're our potter: All of us are what you made us.

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're all sin-infected, sin-contaminated. Our best efforts are grease-stained rags. We dry up like autumn leaves - sin-dried, we're blown off by the wind.

7 No one prays to you or makes the effort to reach out to you Because you've turned away from us, left us to stew in our sins.

8 Still, God, you are our Father. We're the clay and you're our potter: All of us are what you made us.

9 Don't be too angry with us, O God. Don't keep a permanent account of wrongdoing. Keep in mind, please, we are your people - all of us.

10 Your holy cities are all ghost towns: Zion's a ghost town, Jerusalem's a field of weeds.