1Oh that You would rend the heavens and come down, that mountains might quake at Your presence,

2As when the melting fire burns, the 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 which we did not look for, You came down, the mountains quaked at Your presence.

4And from ancient times men have not heard, nor did they perceive, neither has the eye seen, a God besides you Who acts on behalf of those who wait for Him.

5You meet him who rejoices and works righteousness, those who remembered You in Your ways. Behold, You were angry, for we sinned. We have continued in our sins a long time. How can we be saved?

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

7And there is no one who calls upon Your name, who stirs up himself to take hold of You, for You have hidden Your face from us, and have consumed us away because of our iniquities.

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

9Do not be grievously angry, O LORD, nor remember iniquity forever. Behold! Look, we beseech you, all of us are Your people.

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

11The house of our holiness and our beauty, where our fathers praised You, is burned up with fire; and all our pleasant things are laid waste.

12Will You restrain Yourself over these things, O LORD? Will You be silent and sorely afflict us?