Isaiahchapter 64
12 verses · BSBIsaiah book hub →
Speaks with:Romans 7×2Ephesians 2×2Psalms 74×2Micah 1×1Exodus 19×1Mark 1×1
Summary
Chapter summary
Continuing the lament begun in chapter 63, the community pleads for a theophany: "Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down," that mountains might quake as when fire kindles brushwood and the nations tremble. No eye has seen a God besides him, who works for the one who waits for him. Confession follows: all have become as one unclean, "all our righteousnesses are as a polluted garment"; the people fade like a leaf, iniquities carry them off like wind, and none stirs himself to take hold of God. Yet the plea rests on relationship: "we are the clay, and thou our potter." The evidence of ruin closes the prayer: the holy cities a wilderness, Zion a desolation, the holy and beautiful house burned with fire, ending with the question whether Jehovah will still hold his peace.
Context
Prophecy · Isaiah — Isaiah overview
- A. 1–7 Oh That Thou Wouldest Rend the Heavens and Come Down
- B. 8–12 We Are the Clay and Thou Our Potter
The outline
A.Oh That Thou Wouldest Rend the Heavens and Come Downvv. 1 to 7
Read vv. 1 to 7 →B.We Are the Clay and Thou Our Pottervv. 8 to 12
Read vv. 8 to 12 →
The world behind this chapter
Isaiah 64The history
The opening asks for Sinai again. Oh that you would tear the heavens and come down, that the mountains might shake at your presence — as when fire kindles the brushwood and makes water boil. Those are two kitchen-scale pictures of what a mountain looked like when God came down on it: dry scrub catching in an instant, and a pot going over.
The confession uses the strongest word for uncleanness available in Hebrew. All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags — the term names the cloth of a menstruating woman, which under the Law made anything it touched ceremonially unclean. It is not a comment on women; it is the sharpest available way to say that even the good things were contaminated. Then a picture from autumn: we all fade as a leaf, and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away.
The potter appears again, now as a plea rather than a rebuke: we are the clay and you are our potter, and we are all the work of your hand. Do not be furious, and do not remember iniquity forever.
The last lines describe a specific ruin. Your holy cities are a wilderness, Zion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation; our holy and beautiful house where our fathers praised you is burned with fire, and all our pleasant things are laid waste. That is the temple after 586 BC, described as though the speaker is standing in front of it, and it is the strongest single exhibit in the argument that a later writer produced these chapters. The traditional view, held here, is the one the book itself claims: a prophet given a future generation's situation speaks in their voice and prays their prayer — which is what this chapter is, a prayer, not a report.
What it meant to them
The most painful line in it is not about the ruins. It is about the silence: there is no one who calls on your name, who stirs himself up to take hold of you. A wrecked building is one thing; a nation with no one praying in it is worse.
And the ground of the appeal is not their record. It is a title. Now, O LORD, you are our Father. That is all the leverage they have, and the prayer treats it as enough.
Sources cited
- Edward J. Young, The Book of Isaiah (3 vols.)
- The Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsa-a), Qumran Cave 1, c. 125 BC
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Isaiah 64. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.