Isaiah · 12 verses
Isaiah 64
Every verse links to the people and places named in it, and to the passages readers connect it with.
The chapter
What happens here
Atlas's own reading, written from this chapter and nothing else, and published only once a person has approved it. Each scene names the verses it covers; the names inside it link to the people and places they name.
The prayer says that no one calls on the LORD’s name while calling on it at considerable length.
A plea for the heavens to splitvv. 1–4
The speaker longs for the LORD to rend the heavens and come down, with mountains quaking, fire kindling brushwood, water boiling, and nations trembling. The request is for the LORD’s name to become known to enemies; then comes the memory that no other God has been seen, and that this God acts for those who wait.
Clay, guilt, and the absent callvv. 5–9
The speaker moves from remembering the LORD’s welcome to confessing sin: the community has withered, its iniquities carrying it away like wind. The curious silence is then spoken aloud—no one calls on the LORD’s name—before the prayer calls on Him directly, naming Him Father and potter, and asking Him not to remember iniquity forever.
The cities and the burned templevv. 10–12
The prayer ends by laying the ruins before the LORD: holy cities are wilderness, Zion is wasteland, Jerusalem is desolation, and the temple where the fathers praised Him has been burned. After all this, the final question asks whether the LORD will remain silent and continue the affliction.
The text
Read it
Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Names the Hebrew and Greek put in the verse link to the person, place or people they name; the address beside each verse is a link to that verse, which is what a reader copies and shares.
Isa 64:1If only You would rend the heavens and come down, so that mountains would quake at Your presence,
Isa 64:2as 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!
Isa 64:3When You did awesome works that we did not expect, You came down, and the mountains trembled at Your presence.
Isa 64:4From 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.
Isa 64:5You 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?
Isa 64:6Each 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.
Isa 64:7No 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.
Isa 64:8But now, O LORD, You are our Father; we are the clay, and You are the potter; we are all the work of Your hand.
Isa 64:9Do not be angry, O LORD, beyond measure; do not remember our iniquity forever. Oh, look upon us, we pray; we are all Your people!
Isa 64:10Your holy cities have become a wilderness. Zion has become a wasteland and Jerusalem a desolation.
Isa 64:11Our holy and beautiful temple, where our fathers praised You, has been burned with fire, and all that was dear to us lies in ruins.
Isa 64:12After all this, O LORD, will You restrain Yourself? Will You keep silent and afflict us beyond measure?
02 — Read alongside
Where this is echoed
Readers' own connections, from OpenBible's crowd-voted cross-references — agreement about relevance, and not scholarly confidence. 221 passages were voted onto 12 verses of this chapter; the 16 shown lead on votes, and each is listed at the verse it was voted onto most strongly.
- 41 Corinthians 2:9–10Rather, as it is written: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no heart has imagined, what God has prepared for those who love Him.”
- 6Romans 7:18I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh; for I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.
- 8Ephesians 2:10For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance as our way of life.
- 8Psalms 119:73Your hands have made me and fashioned me; give me understanding to learn Your commandments.
- 8Jeremiah 18:2–6“Go down at once to the potter’s house, and there I will give you My message.”
- 4Psalms 31:19How great is Your goodness which You have laid up for those who fear You, which You have bestowed before the sons of men on those who take refuge in You!
- 6Romans 7:24What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?
- 8Psalms 138:8The LORD will fulfill His purpose for me. O LORD, Your loving devotion endures forever—do not abandon the works of Your hands.
- 8Psalms 100:3Know that the LORD is God. It is He who made us, and we are His; we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture.
- 6Ephesians 2:1–2And you were dead in your trespasses and sins,
- 8Isaiah 29:16You have turned things upside down, as if the potter were regarded as clay. Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, “He did not make me”? Can the pottery say of the potter, “He has no understanding”?
- 8Isaiah 44:24Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer who formed you from the womb: “I am the LORD, who has made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who by Myself spread out the earth,
- 8Isaiah 45:9Woe to him who quarrels with his Maker—one clay pot among many. Does the clay ask the potter, ‘What are you making?’ Does your work say, ‘He has no hands’?
- 4James 5:7Be patient, then, brothers, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer awaits the precious fruit of the soil—how patient he is for the fall and spring rains.
- 4Isaiah 25:9And in that day it will be said, “Surely this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He has saved us. This is the LORD for whom we have waited. Let us rejoice and be glad in His salvation.”
- 6Zechariah 3:3Now Joshua was dressed in filthy garments as he stood before the angel.
Onward