1 Oh that thou would rend the heavens, that thou would come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence,
2 as [when] the melting fire burns, the fire causes the waters to boil, to make thy name known to thine adversaries, [that] the Gentiles may tremble at thy presence!
3 [As] thou didst come down when thou didst terrible things [which] we did not look for, [that] the mountains flowed down at thy presence.
4 Nor have [men] heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither has the eye seen a God beside thee, that thou might do [it again] for the one who waits in him.
5 Thou didst come out to meet him that with rejoicing had worked righteousness. In thy ways they remembered thee. Behold, thou art wroth; for we have sinned: thy ways are eternal, and [we] shall be saved.
6 But we were all as an unclean [thing], and all our righteousnesses as filthy rags; and we all fell as the leaves [of a tree]; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
7 And [there is] none that calls upon thy name, that wakes himself up to take hold [of thee]; therefore, thou hast hid thy face from us and hast allowed us to wither in the power of our iniquities.
8 But now, O LORD, thou [art] our father; we [are] the clay, and thou our potter; such that we all [are] the work of thy hands.
9 Be not wroth very sore, O LORD, neither remember iniquity for ever; behold, see, we beseech thee, we [are] all thy people.
10 Thy holy cities are a wilderness, Zion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation.
11 Our house of our Sanctuary and of our glory, where our fathers praised thee, was burned up with fire; and all our precious things were destroyed.
12 Wilt thou refrain thyself regarding these [things], O LORD? Wilt thou hold thy peace and afflict us very sore?: