1 Oh that you would tear the heavens, that you would come down, that the mountains might quake at your presence,
2 as when fire kindles the brushwood, [and] the fire causes the waters to boil; to make your name known to your adversaries, that the nations may tremble at your presence!
3 When you did terrible things which we didn't look for, you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence.
4 For from of old men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither has the eye seen a God besides you, who works for him who waits for him.
5 You meet him who rejoices and works righteousness, those who remember you in your ways: behold, you were angry, and we sinned: in them [have we been] of long time; and shall we be saved?
6 For we are all become as one who is unclean, and all our righteousness are as a polluted garment: and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
7 There is none who calls on your name, who stirs up himself to take hold of you; for you have hid your face from us, and have consumed us by means of our iniquities.
8 But now, Yahweh, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you our potter; and we all are the work of your hand.
9 Don't be angry very sore, Yahweh, neither remember iniquity forever: see, look, we beg you, we are all your people.
10 Your holy cities are become a wilderness, Zion is become a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation.
11 Our holy and our beautiful house, where our fathers praised you, is burned with fire; and all our pleasant places are laid waste.
12 Will you refrain yourself for these things, Yahweh? will you hold your peace, and afflict us very sore?
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Isaiah 64
Commentary on Isaiah 64 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 64
This chapter goes on with that pathetic pleading prayer which the church offered up to God in the latter part of the foregoing chapter. They had argued from their covenant-relation to God and his interest and concern in them; now here,
And this was not only intended for the use of the captive Jews, but may serve for direction to the church in other times of distress, what to ask of God and how to plead with him. Are God's people at any time in affliction, in great affliction? Let them pray, let them thus pray.
Isa 64:1-5
Here,
Isa 64:6-12
As we have the Lamentations of Jeremiah, so here we have the Lamentations of Isaiah; the subject of both is the same-the destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans and the sin of Israel that brought that destruction-only with this difference, Isaiah sees it at a distance and laments it by the Spirit of prophecy, Jeremiah saw it accomplished. In these verses,