¹⁶ For thou art our Father,
    though Abraham does not know us
    and Israel does not acknowledge us;
thou, O Lord, art our Father,
    our Redeemer from of old is thy name.
¹⁷ O Lord, why dost thou make us err from thy ways
    and harden our heart, so that we fear thee not?
Return for the sake of thy servants,
    the tribes of thy heritage.

¹⁹ We have become like those over whom thou hast never ruled,
    like those who are not called by thy name.

^2 [a]as when fire kindles brushwood
    and the fire causes water to boil—
to make thy name known to thy adversaries,
    and that the nations might tremble at thy presence!
³ When thou didst terrible things which we looked not for,
    thou camest down, the mountains quaked at thy presence.
⁴ From of old no one has heard
    or perceived by the ear,
no eye has seen a God besides thee,
    who works for those who wait for him.
⁵ Thou meetest him that joyfully works righteousness,
    those that remember thee in thy ways.
Behold, thou wast angry, and we sinned;
    in our sins we have been a long time, and shall we be saved?^[b]
6 We have all become like one who is unclean,
    and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.
We all fade like a leaf,
    and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
⁷ There is no one that calls upon thy name,
    that bestirs himself to take hold of thee;
for thou hast hid thy face from us,
    and hast delivered^[c] us into the hand of our iniquities.