1
O that thou wouldst rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might quake at thy presence--
2
as when fire kindles brushwood and the fire causes water to boil--to make thy name known to thy adversaries, and that the nations might tremble at thy presence!
3
When thou didst terrible things which we looked not for, thou camest down, the mountains quaked at thy presence.
4
From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a God besides thee, who works for those who wait for him.
5
Thou meetest him that joyfully works righteousness, those that remember thee in thy ways. Behold, thou wast angry, and we sinned; in our sins we have been a long time, and shall we be saved?
6
We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
7
There is no one that calls upon thy name, that bestirs himself to take hold of thee; for thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast delivered us into the hand of our iniquities.
8
Yet, O LORD, thou art our Father; we are the clay, and thou art our potter; we are all the work of thy hand.
9
Be not exceedingly angry, O LORD, and remember not iniquity for ever. Behold, consider, we are all thy people.
10
Thy holy cities have become a wilderness, Zion has become a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation.
11
Our holy and beautiful house, where our fathers praised thee, has been burned by fire, and all our pleasant places have become ruins.