Isaiah 63-64

Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition

“It is I, announcing vindication,
    mighty to save.”

² Why is thy apparel red,
    and thy garments like his that treads in the wine press?

³ “I have trodden the wine press alone,
    and from the peoples no one was with me;
I trod them in my anger
    and trampled them in my wrath;
their lifeblood is sprinkled upon my garments,
    and I have stained all my raiment.
⁴ For the day of vengeance was in my heart,
    and my year of redemption^[a] has come.
⁵ I looked, but there was no one to help;
    I was appalled, but there was no one to uphold;
so my own arm brought me victory,
    and my wrath upheld me.
⁶ I trod down the peoples in my anger,
    I made them drunk in my wrath,
    and I poured out their lifeblood on the earth.”

¹⁰ But they rebelled
    and grieved his holy Spirit;
therefore he turned to be their enemy,
    and himself fought against them.
¹¹ Then he remembered the days of old,
    of Moses his servant.
Where is he who brought up out of the sea
    the shepherds of his flock?
Where is he who put in the midst of them
    his holy Spirit,
¹² who caused his glorious arm
    to go at the right hand of Moses,
who divided the waters before them
    to make for himself an everlasting name,
¹³     who led them through the depths?
Like a horse in the desert,
    they did not stumble.
¹⁴ Like cattle that go down into the valley,
    the Spirit of the Lord gave them rest.
So thou didst lead thy people,
    to make for thyself a glorious name.

64 O that thou wouldst rend the heavens and come down,
    that the mountains might quake at thy presence—
^2 [c]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?^[d]
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^[e] us into the hand of our iniquities.

⁸ Yet, O Lord, thou art our Father;
    we are the clay, and thou art our potter;
    we are all the work of thy hand.
⁹ Be not exceedingly angry, O Lord,
    and remember not iniquity for ever.
    Behold, consider, we are all thy people.
¹⁰ Thy holy cities have become a wilderness,
    Zion has become a wilderness,
    Jerusalem a desolation.
¹¹ Our holy and beautiful house,
    where our fathers praised thee,
has been burned by fire,
    and all our pleasant places have become ruins.
¹² Wilt thou restrain thyself at these things, O Lord?
    Wilt thou keep silent, and afflict us sorely?