Isaiah 64

¹ as fire sets brushwood alight, as fire causes water to boil – to make known your name to your enemies, and make the nations tremble at your Presence,

² working unexpected miracles

³ such as no one has ever heard of before. No ear has heard, no eye has seen any god but you act like this for those who trust him.

⁴ You guide those who act with integrity and keep your ways in mind. You were angry when we were sinners; we had long been rebels against you.

⁵ We were all like men unclean, all that integrity of ours like filthy clothing. We have all withered like leaves and our sins blew us away like the wind.

⁶ No one invoked your name or roused himself to catch hold of you. For you hid your face from us and gave us up to the power of our sins.

⁷ And yet, Yahweh, you are our Father; we the clay, you the potter, we are all the work of your hand.

⁸ Do not let your anger go too far, Yahweh, or go on thinking of our sins for ever. See, see, we are all your people;

⁹ your holy cities are a wilderness, Zion a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation,

¹⁰ our holy and glorious Temple, in which our fathers prayed to you, is burnt to the ground; all that gave us pleasure lies in ruins.

¹¹ Yahweh, can you go unmoved by all of this, oppressing us beyond measure by your silence?