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64. Praise and Prayer

¹ In Hebrew texts 64:1 is numbered 63:19b, and 64:2-12 is numbered 64:1-11.Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down,
   that the mountains would tremble before you!
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!
³ For when you did awesome things that we did not expect,
   you came down, and the mountains trembled before you.
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.
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?
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.
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 Septuagint, Syriac and Targum; Hebrew have made us melt because of our sins.

    ⁸ Yet you, LORD, are our Father.
   We are the clay, you are the potter;
   we are all the work of your hand.
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.
¹⁰ Your sacred cities have become a wasteland;
   even Zion is a wasteland, Jerusalem a desolation.
¹¹ Our holy and glorious temple, where our ancestors praised you,
   has been burned with fire,
   and all that we treasured lies in ruins.
¹² After all this, LORD, will you hold yourself back?
   Will you keep silent and punish us beyond measure?

6. We have all been as the unclean. The believers go on in their complaint; for they deplore their condition, because God appears to take no account of them. Hebrew writers are not agreed as to the meaning of the words בגד עדים (beged gniddim.) ¹⁹⁰¹⁹⁰ “Vitringa and Gessenius dwell with great zest and fullness on the strict sense of בגר עדים (beged gniddim.) Some understand the comparison with withered leaves as a part of the description of their sin, while others apply it to their punishment. The first hypothesis is favored by the difference of the tenses; the last by the parallelism of the clauses. It is probable, however, that here, as in chap. 1:4, the two things run together in the writer’s mind, and that no refined distinction as to this point was intended.” — Alexander. Yet it is certain that it denotes something which is vile and worthless, and which, on account of its filthiness, stinks in the noses of men. But here two things ought to be observed; first, that believers confess their guilt, and are justly punished for it; and, secondly, that they nevertheless complain of the severity of the punishments which they endure, not to blame God, but to move him to compassion; just as a culprit, when he endeavors to mitigate the severity of a judge, lays before him his own distresses and calamities. Some commentators torture this passage, by alleging that the Prophet, when he speaks of the pollutions of sins, describes all Jews without exception, though there still remained some of them who were sincere worshippers of God. But there are no good grounds for this; for the Prophet does not speak of individuals, but of the whole body, which, being trodden under foot by all men, and subjected to the utmost indignity, he compares to a filthy garment.

There are some who frequently quote this passage, in order to prove that so far are our works from having any merit in them, that they are rotten and loathsome in the sight of God. But this appears to me to be at variance with the Prophet’s meaning, who does not speak of the whole human race, but describes the complaint of those who, having been led into captivity, experienced the wrath of the Lord against them, and therefore, acknowledged that they and their righteousnesses were like a filthy garment. And first, he exhorts them to a confession of their sin, that they may acknowledge their guilt; and next, that they should nevertheless ask pardon from God, the manner of obtaining which is, that, while we complain that we are wretched and distressed, we at the same time acknowledge that we are justly punished for our sins.

And we all fade as a leaf. This is a very beautiful comparison, which shews that men utterly fade and decay when they feel that God is angry with them; as is admirably described in Psalm 90:6; 103:16 ¹⁹¹¹⁹¹ Commentary on Isaiah, vol. 3, p. 210. Justly, therefore, are we compared to leaves; for “our iniquities, like the wind, carry us away.”