¹Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down,

that the mountains might quake at your presence—

²1 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!

³When you did awesome things that we did not look for,

you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence.

⁴From 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.

⁵You 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?2

⁶We 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.

⁷There 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 in3 the hand of our iniquities.

⁸But now, O Lord, you are our Father;

we are the clay, and you are our potter;

we are all the work of your hand.

⁹Be not so terribly angry, O Lord,

and remember not iniquity forever.

Behold, please look, we are all your people.

¹⁰Your holy cities have become a wilderness;

Zion has become a wilderness,

Jerusalem a desolation.

¹¹Our holy and beautiful4 house,

where our fathers praised you,

has been burned by fire,

and all our pleasant places have become ruins.

¹²Will you restrain yourself at these things, O Lord?

Will you keep silent, and afflict us so terribly?