Isaiah

aMeaning of vv. 1–4 uncertain. As when fire kindles brushwood,And fire makes water boil—To make Your name known to Your adversariesSo that nations will tremble at Your Presence,

When You did wonders we dared not hope for,You came downAnd mountains quaked before You.

Such things had never been heard or noted.No eye has seen [them], O God, but You,Who act for those who trust in You.bYou Heb. “Him.”

Yet You have struck those who would gladly do justice,And remember You in Your ways.It is because You are angry that we have sinned;We have been steeped in them from of old,And can we be saved?cWe have been steeped in them from of old, / And can we be saved? Emendation yields “Because You have hidden Yourself we have offended.” For the thought cf. 63.17.

We have all become like an impure thing,And all our virtues like a filthy rag.We are all withering like leaves,And our iniquities, like a wind, carry us off.

Yet no one invokes Your name,Rouses themselves to cling to You.For You have hidden Your face from us,And made us melt because ofdmade us melt because of Emendation yields “delivered us into the hands of…” our iniquities.

But now, O ETERNAL One, You are our Father;eFather I.e., the One who generated this nation, and upon whom we are utterly dependent. We are the clay, and You are the Potter,We are all the work of Your hands.

Be not implacably angry, O ETERNAL One,Do not remember iniquity forever.Oh, look down to Your people, to us all!

Your holy cities have become a desert:Zion has become a desert,Jerusalem a desolation.

Our holy temple, our pride,Where our ancestors praised You,Has been consumed by fire:And all that was dear to us is ruined.

At such things will You restrain Yourself, O ETERNAL One,Will You stand idly by and let us suffer so heavily?