64 ^[a] If only you would tear open the heavens and come down!
    Mountains would quake before you
²     like fire igniting brushwood or making water boil.
^[b] If you would make your name known to your enemies,
    the nations would tremble in your presence.

³ When you accomplished wonders beyond all our expectations;
    when you came down, mountains quaked before you.
⁴ From ancient times,
    no one has heard,
    no ear has perceived,
    no eye has seen any god but you
    who acts on behalf of those who wait for him!^[c]
5 You look after those who gladly do right;
    they will praise you for your ways.^[d]
But you were angry when we sinned;
    you hid yourself when we did wrong.^[e]
6 We have all become like the unclean;
    all our righteous deeds are like a menstrual rag.
All of us wither like a leaf;
    our sins, like the wind, carry us away.
⁷ No one calls on your name;
    no one bothers to hold on to you,
    for you have hidden yourself from us,
    and have handed us over^[f] to our sin.

⁸ But now, Lord, you are our father.
    We are the clay, and you are our potter.
    All of us are the work of your hand.
⁹ Don’t rage so fiercely, Lord;
    don’t hold our sins against us forever,
    but gaze now on your people, all of us:
¹⁰     Your holy cities have become a wilderness;
    Zion has become a wilderness, Jerusalem a wasteland.
¹¹ Our holy, glorious house,
    where our ancestors praised you,
    has gone up in flames;
    all that we treasured has become a ruin.
¹² After all this, will you hold back, Lord?
    Will you keep silent and torment us so terribly?