1 If only You would rend the heavens and come down, so that mountains would quake at Your presence,

2 as fire kindles the brushwood and causes the water to boil, to make Your name known to Your enemies, so that the nations will tremble at Your presence!

3 When You did awesome works that we did not expect, You came down, and the mountains trembled at Your presence.

4 From ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides You, who acts on behalf of those who wait for Him.

5 You welcome those who gladly do right, who remember Your ways. Surely You were angry, for we sinned. How can we be saved if we remain in our sins?

6 Each of us has become like something unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all wither like a leaf, and our iniquities carry us away like the wind.

7 No one calls on Your name or strives to take hold of You. For You have hidden Your face from us and delivered us into the hand of our iniquity.

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

9 Do not be angry, O LORD, beyond measure; do not remember our iniquity forever. Oh, look upon us, we pray; we are all Your people!

10 Your holy cities have become a wilderness. Zion has become a wasteland and 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 After all this, O LORD, will You restrain Yourself? Will You keep silent and afflict us beyond measure?