The Complete Jewish Bible CJB
New International Version NIV
1 ) We wish you would tear open heaven and come down, so the mountains would shake at your presence!
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Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before you!
2 It would be like fire kindling the brush, and the fire then makes the water boil. Then your enemies would know your name, the nations would tremble before you!
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As when fire sets twigs ablaze and causes water to boil, come down to make your name known to your enemies and cause the nations to quake before you!
3 When you did tremendous things that we were not expecting, we wished that you would come down, so that the mountains would shake at your presence!
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For when you did awesome things that we did not expect, you came down, and the mountains trembled before you.
4 No one has ever heard, no ear perceived, no eye seen, any God but you. You work for him who waits for you.
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Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him.
5 You favored those who were glad to do justice, those who remembered you in your ways. When you were angry, we kept sinning; but if we keep your ancient ways, we will be saved.
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You come to the help of those who gladly do right, who remember your ways. But when we continued to sin against them, you were angry. How then can we be saved?
6 All of us are like someone unclean, all our righteous deeds like menstrual rags; we wither, all of us, like leaves; and our misdeeds blow us away like the wind.
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All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.
7 No one calls on your name or bestirs himself to take hold of you, for you have hidden your face from us and caused our misdeeds to destroy us.
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No one calls on your name or strives to lay hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us and have given us over to our sins.
8 But now, ADONAI, you are our father; we are the clay, you are our potter; and we are all the work of your hands.
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Yet you, LORD, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.
9 Do not be so very angry, ADONAI! Don't remember crime forever. Look, please, we are all your people.
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Do not be angry beyond measure, LORD; do not remember our sins forever. Oh, look on us, we pray, for we are all your people.
10 Your holy cities have become a desert, Tziyon a desert, Yerushalayim a ruin.
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Your sacred cities have become a wasteland; even Zion is a wasteland, Jerusalem a desolation.
11 Our holy, beautiful house, where our ancestors used to praise you, has been burned to the ground; all we cherished has been ruined.
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Our holy and glorious temple, where our ancestors praised you, has been burned with fire, and all that we treasured lies in ruins.
12 ADONAI, after all this, will you still hold back? Will you still stay silent and punish us past endurance?
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After all this, LORD, will you hold yourself back? Will you keep silent and punish us beyond measure?
Complete Jewish Bible Copyright 1998 by David H. Stern. Published by Jewish New Testament Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Scripture quoted by permission. Quotations designated (NIV) are from THE HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica. All rights reserved worldwide.