Isa 64:1 Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before you!
Isa 64:2 As when fire sets twigs ablaze and causes water to boil, come down to make your name known to your enemies and cause the nations to quake before you!
Isa 64:3 For when you did awesome things that we did not expect, you came down, and the mountains trembled before you.
Isa 64:4 Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him.
Isa 64:5 You come to the help of those who gladly do right, who remember your ways. But when we continued to sin against them, you were angry. How then can we be saved?
Isa 64:6 All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.
Isa 64:7 No one calls on your name or strives to lay hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us and have given us over to our sins.
Isa 64:8 Yet you, LORD, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.
Isa 64:9 Do not be angry beyond measure, LORD; do not remember our sins forever. Oh, look on us, we pray, for we are all your people.
Isa 64:10 Your sacred cities have become a wasteland; even Zion is a wasteland, Jerusalem a desolation.
Isa 64:11 Our holy and glorious temple, where our ancestors praised you, has been burned with fire, and all that we treasured lies in ruins.
Isa 64:12 After all this, LORD, will you hold yourself back? Will you keep silent and punish us beyond measure?
1 The church prayed for the illustration of God’s power. 5 Celebrating God’s mercy, it maketh confession of their natural corruptions. 9 It complained of their affliction.
Isa 64:1 Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before you!
Isa 64:2 As when fire sets twigs ablaze and causes water to boil, come down to make your name known to your enemies and cause the nations to quake before you!
Isa 64:3 For when you did awesome things that we did not expect, you came down, and the mountains trembled before you.
Isa 64:4 Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him.
Isa 64:5 You come to the help of those who gladly do right, who remember your ways. But when we continued to sin against them, you were angry. How then can we be saved?
Isa 64:6 All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.
Isa 64:7 No one calls on your name or strives to lay hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us and have given us over to our sins.
Isa 64:8 Yet you, LORD, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.
Isa 64:9 Do not be angry beyond measure, LORD; do not remember our sins forever. Oh, look on us, we pray, for we are all your people.
Isa 64:10 Your sacred cities have become a wasteland; even Zion is a wasteland, Jerusalem a desolation.
Isa 64:11 Our holy and glorious temple, where our ancestors praised you, has been burned with fire, and all that we treasured lies in ruins.
Isa 64:12 After all this, LORD, will you hold yourself back? Will you keep silent and punish us beyond measure?
Isa 64:1 Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before you!
Chapter 64 continues the prayer begun in ch. 63:15. The chapter division here is unfortunate, for it tends to blur the continuity. In the Hebrew text the division occurs at the end of v. 1. On behalf of the people Isaiah calls upon the Lord to manifest Himself in their behalf (see on ch. 63:19). The background of the prayer is the picture earlier presented. The sanctuary is desolate and the people are in a strange land (see on ch. 63:18).
Might flow down. Heb. zalal, which, in the form here found, means “to quake.”
Isa 64:2 As when fire sets twigs ablaze and causes water to boil, come down to make your name known to your enemies and cause the nations to quake before you!
The picture seems to be that the mountains would be unable to resist the descent of Jehovah even as dry, inflammable brushwood is unable to avoid being ignited when brought into contact with fire, or as water is unable to resist boiling when heated over a fire.
Isa 64:3 For when you did awesome things that we did not expect, you came down, and the mountains trembled before you.
Israel asked God to do again what He had done in former times.
Isa 64:4 Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him.
The objective case seems to be required by the context rather than the vocative. The forms are identical in the Hebrew. The passage may be literally translated, “From of old they have not heard, they have not perceived with the ear, eye hath not seen a God beside thee who works for the one waiting for him.” Compare the translation of the ASV as quoted in MH 425. The willingness of God to intervene in crises is here extolled. No other god works for his devotees as does the living God. The reference is not to the unspeakable glories of the future world, though the words as they are quoted in 1 Cor. 2:9 have been applied in that way (see GC 675), as well as to the present (see PP 602; DA 412).
The LXX shows slight variations: “From of old we have not heard, neither have our eyes seen a God beside thee, and thy works which thou wilt perform to them that wait for mercy.” Paul’s quotation also reveals some differences. The NT passage may be translated literally, “The things which eye hath not seen, and ear hath not heard, and upon the heart of man has not come, all of which God has prepared for those loving him.” Paul’s emphasis is upon spiritual understanding. He calls attention to the reason why the “princes of this world” “crucified the Lord of glory.”
They did not possess the spiritual understanding that would have caused them to comprehend “the wisdom of God.” Spiritual things are to be “spiritually discerned.” What the natural senses have not perceived without God, God has revealed by His Spirit to those who love Him. To men who possess spiritual discernment there is opened a new world, a world closed to those whose spiritual sensitivities are dulled.
Isa 64:5 You come to the help of those who gladly do right, who remember your ways. But when we continued to sin against them, you were angry. How then can we be saved?
Heaven is not far away from earth. God meets with those who are willing to meet with Him. Since God is a righteous and a holy God, and since wickedness constitutes rebellion against Him and against the principles of His kingdom, He walks in closeness of fellowship only with those who seek after righteousness.
Remember. Not only do they keep God in their conscious memory; they do that which a knowledge of God and of the divine way should lead men to do. The Hebrew word here translated “remember” allows such an extension of meaning.
In those is continuance. The Hebrew here is brief and obscure. Many reconstructions have been attempted. Some think that the reference is to a continuance of God’s mercy and saving grace to the penitent. Others believe that the pronoun “those” refers to Israel’s rebellion against God. With the latter sense the passage may be interpreted, “Behold, thou art wroth, for we have sinned and we have continued in our ways of sin, and can we thus hope to be saved?”
Isa 64:6 All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.
Unclean thing. Heb. ṭame’, an adjective meaning “unclean.” Standing by itself, as here, it may refer either to an unclean thing or to an “unclean person.” Ṭame’ is the word that appears repeatedly throughout Leviticus describing ceremonial uncleanness. Left to himself, man cannot wash away the impurity of sin—he remains unclean.
Filthy rags. Literally, “as a menstruous garment.” Man’s best efforts produce, not righteousness, but imperfection. Only the robe of righteousness that Christ has provided will fit man to appear in the presence of God (see Gal. 2:16; COL 311).
Fade as a leaf. A leaf separated from a tree soon withers and dies. The same is true of a man without Christ. The effect of sin is death (Rom. 5:12; 6:23; James 1:15).
Like the wind. As the wind tears a leaf from a branch and carries it farther and farther from the parent tree, and thus from its source of life, so sin sweeps man farther and farther away from God and hurries him on toward death and destruction.
Isa 64:7 No one calls on your name or strives to lay hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us and have given us over to our sins.
Following the reading magan, the LXX, Targums, and Syriac give the translation “hast delivered.” In point of time the prophet is envisioning the period of Babylonian captivity (see v. 10; cf. ch. 63:18; see on ch. 40:1).
Isa 64:8 Yet you, LORD, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.
This is a pathetic plea for mercy. Notwithstanding the widespread religious indifference (v. 7) and the desperate state into which the nation had come, God was still the Father of His people and in a position to help (see on ch. 63:16).
We are the clay. This prayer—by Isaiah on behalf of his people—indicates penitence and surrender. The spirit of stubborn resistance is gone, and there is a willingness to be molded into the image of God. See chs. 29:16; 45:9.
Isa 64:9 Do not be angry beyond measure, LORD; do not remember our sins forever. Oh, look on us, we pray, for we are all your people.
The penitent in his pitiful cry for mercy humbly acknowledges his transgression and the right of the Lord to punish, but he pleads that God’s punishment may not last too long and that it may not be too severe (see Ps. 79:8; 103:8–10).
Isa 64:10 Your sacred cities have become a wasteland; even Zion is a wasteland, Jerusalem a desolation.
Verses 10, 11 picture further the desolation to come upon Judah and Jerusalem at the time of the Babylonian invasions (see 2 Kings 25:2–10). The event was still future in Isaiah’s day, but the prophet describes the event as if it had already taken place. For further comment see on Isa. 40:1.
Isa 64:11 Our holy and glorious temple, where our ancestors praised you, has been burned with fire, and all that we treasured lies in ruins.
Isa 64:12 After all this, LORD, will you hold yourself back? Will you keep silent and punish us beyond measure? 12. Wilt thou refrain? The prophet was saying in effect, “Art Thou not interested in this, Thy Temple, and in us, Thy people? Do none of these things move Thee? Shall our enemies and Thy enemies prevail? Is righteousness to perish and iniquity to triumph? Is this to be a victory for the forces of evil and a defeat for the cause of God?”