1Oh, that You would rend the heavens! That You would come down! That the mountains might shake at Your presence--

2As fire burns brushwood, As fire causes water to boil-- To make Your name known to Your adversaries, That the nations may tremble at Your presence!

3When You did awesome things for which we did not look, You came down, The mountains shook at Your presence.

4For since the beginning of the world Men have not heard nor perceived by the ear, Nor has the eye seen any God besides You, Who acts for the one who waits for Him.

5You meet him who rejoices and does righteousness, Who remembers You in Your ways. You are indeed angry, for we have sinned-- In these ways we continue; And we need to be saved.

6But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, Have taken us away.

7And there is no one who calls on Your name, Who stirs himself up to take hold of You; For You have hidden Your face from us, And have consumed us because of our iniquities.

8But now, O LORD, You are our Father; We are the clay, and You our potter; And all we are the work of Your hand.

9Do not be furious, O LORD, Nor remember iniquity forever; Indeed, please look--we all are Your people!

10Your holy cities are a wilderness, Zion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation.

11Our holy and beautiful temple, Where our fathers praised You, Is burned up with fire; And all our pleasant things are laid waste.

12Will You restrain Yourself because of these things, O LORD? Will You hold Your peace, and afflict us very severely?