1. If only You would tear the heavens openand come down, so that mountains would quake at Your presence —
2. as fire kindles the brushwood,and fire causes water to boil —to make Your name known to Your enemies,so that nations will tremble at Your presence!
3. When You did awesome works that we did not expect,You came down, and the mountains quaked at Your presence.
4. From ancient times no one has heard,no one has listened,no eye has seen any God except You,who acts on behalf of the one who waits for Him.
5. You welcome the one who joyfully does what is right;they remember You in Your ways.But we have sinned, and You were angry.How can we be saved if we remain in our sins?
6. All of us have become like something unclean,and all our righteous acts are like a polluted garment; all of us wither like a leaf, and our iniquities carry us away like the wind.
7. No one calls on Your name,striving to take hold of You.For You have hidden Your face from us and made us melt because of our iniquity.
8. Yet Lord, You are our Father; we are the clay, and You are our potter;we all are the work of Your hands.
9. Lord, do not be terribly angryor remember our iniquity forever. Please look — all of us are Your people!
10. Your holy cities have become a wilderness;Zion has become a wilderness,Jerusalem a desolation.
11. Our holy and beautiful temple,where our fathers praised You,has been burned with fire,and all that was dear to us lies in ruins.
12. Lord, after all this, will You restrain Yourself?Will You keep silent and afflict severely?