64 Tear open the skies and come down to earth.
    The mountains would tremble before you.
² Be like a fire that burns twigs.
    Be like a fire that makes water boil.
Do this so that your enemies will know who you are.
    Then all nations will shake with fear when they see you.
³ You have done amazing things that we did not expect.
    You came down, and the mountains trembled before you.
⁴ From long ago no one has ever heard of a God like you.
    No one has ever seen a God besides you.
    You help the people who trust you.
⁵ You help those who enjoy doing good.
    You help those who remember how you want them to live.
But you were angry because we sinned.
    For a long time we disobeyed.
    How will we be saved?
⁶ All of us are dirty with sin.
    All the right things we have done are like filthy pieces of cloth.
All of us are like dead leaves.
    Like the wind our sins have carried us away.
⁷ No one worships you.
    No one even asks you to help us.
So you have turned away from us.
    And we are destroyed because of our sins.

⁸ But Lord, you are our father.
    We are like clay, and you are the potter.
    Your hands made us all.
⁹ 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.
    Jerusalem is like a desert;
    Jerusalem is destroyed.
¹¹ Our ancestors worshiped you
    in our holy and wonderful Temple.
But now it has been burned with fire.
    All our precious things have been destroyed.
¹² When you see these things, will you hold yourself back from helping us, Lord?
    Will you be silent and punish us beyond what we can stand?