[1] Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might quake at your presence—
[2] as when fire kindles brushwood and the fire causes water to boil— to make your name known to your adversaries, and that the nations might tremble at your presence!
[3] When you did awesome things that we did not look for, you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence.
[4] From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a God besides you, who acts for those who wait for him.
[5] You meet him who joyfully works righteousness, those who remember you in your ways. Behold, you were angry, and we sinned; in our sins we have been a long time, and shall we be saved?
[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 who calls upon your name, who rouses himself to take hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us, and have made us melt in the hand of our iniquities.
[8] But now, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand.
[9] Be not so terribly angry, O Lord, and remember not iniquity forever. Behold, please look, we are all your people.
[10] Your holy cities have become a wilderness; Zion has become a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation.
[11] Our holy and beautiful house, where our fathers praised you, has been burned by fire, and all our pleasant places have become ruins.
[12] Will you restrain yourself at these things, O Lord ? Will you keep silent, and afflict us so terribly?