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64 If only you would tear open the ·skies [heavens] and come down to earth
    so that the mountains would ·tremble [shake] before you.
Like a fire that ·burns [kindles; ignites] ·twigs [dry wood],
    like a fire that makes water boil,
let your ·enemies [adversaries] know ·who you are [L your name].
    Then all nations will shake with fear ·when they see you [before you].
You have done amazing things ·we did not expect [beyond our expectations].
    You came down, and the mountains trembled before you.
From ·long ago [ancient times; of old] no ·one [L ear] has ever heard of a God like you.
    No ·one [L eye] has ever seen a God besides you,
    who ·helps [acts on behalf of] the people who ·trust [wait for] you.
You help those who ·enjoy doing good [joyfully act righteously],
    who remember ·how you want them to live [L your ways/paths].
·But [L Look; T Behold] you were angry because we sinned.
    For a long time we disobeyed,
    so how can we be saved?
All of us ·are dirty with sin [became like an unclean/defiled thing].
    All ·the right things we have done [our righteous deeds] are like ·filthy pieces of cloth [filthy garments/rags; or a menstrual cloth; 30:22].
All of us ·are [fade; shrivel] like dead leaves,
    and our ·sins [iniquities], like the wind, have carried us away.
No one ·worships you [L calls on your name]
    or ·even asks you to help us [L rouses himself to lay hold of you].
That is because you have ·turned away [hidden your face] from us
    and have ·let our sins destroy us [given us over to our sins].[a]

But Lord, you are our father.
    We are like clay, and you are the potter;
    your hands made us all.
Lord, don’t continue to be angry with us;
    don’t remember our sins forever.
Please, look at us,
    because we are your people.
10 Your holy cities ·are empty like the desert [have become a wilderness/wasteland].
    ·Jerusalem [L Zion; C the location of the Temple] is like a ·desert [wilderness; wasteland];
    it is ·destroyed [a desolation].
11 Our ancestors worshiped you
    in our holy and wonderful Temple,
but now it has been burned with fire,
    and all our ·precious [treasured; pleasant] things have ·been destroyed [become ruins].
12 ·When you see these things [After this], will you hold yourself back from helping us, Lord?
    Will you be silent and punish us beyond ·what we can stand [measure]?

Footnotes

  1. Isaiah 64:7 let our sins destroy us Greek, Syriac, and Aramaic copies read “given us over to our sins.” Hebrew copies read “caused us to melt in the hand of our sin.”

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