1Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down,

that the mountains might quake at your presence—

264:2 Ch 64:1 in Hebrew as when fire kindles brushwood

and the fire causes water to boil—

to make your name known to your adversaries,

and that the nations might tremble at your presence!

3When you did awesome things that we did not look for,

you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence.

4From of old no one has heard

or perceived by the ear,

no eye has seen a God besides you,

who acts for those who wait for him.

5You meet him who joyfully works righteousness,

those who remember you in your ways.

Behold, you were angry, and we sinned;

in our sins we have been a long time, and shall we be saved?64:5 Or in your ways is continuance, that we might be saved

6We 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.

7There is no one who calls upon your name,

who rouses himself to take hold of you;

for you have hidden your face from us,

and have made us melt in64:7 Masoretic Text; Septuagint, Syriac, Targum have delivered us into the hand of our iniquities.

8But now, O LORD, you are our Father;

we are the clay, and you are our potter;

we are all the work of your hand.

9Be not so terribly angry, O LORD,

and remember not iniquity for ever.

Behold, please look, we are all your people.

10Your holy cities have become a wilderness;

Zion has become a wilderness,

Jerusalem a desolation.

11Our holy and beautiful64:11 Or holy and glorious house,

where our fathers praised you,

has been burned by fire,

and all our pleasant places have become ruins.

12Will you restrain yourself at these things, O LORD?

Will you keep silent, and afflict us so terribly?