Isaiahchapter 64
12 verses · Isaiah · 8th century BC · The Prophets
If only You would rend the heavens and come down, so that mountains would quake at Your presence,
Introduction
Isaiah, The Prophets, Isaiah Overview.
Isaiah continues the prayer that began in the previous chapter, and he speaks as if standing before the burned temple and the empty cities. The people ask the LORD to come down as He came down at Sinai. The chapter is a confession and a plea. It is short and it ends with a question. Listen for the two kitchen pictures near the start, the brush fire and the pot boiling over. Listen too for the picture of the potter and the clay. The prayer has only one ground to stand on, and it names it.
Context
- Who
- A people looking at the wreckage of the place their fathers had worshipped in
- What
- A continued prayer asking the LORD to come down, confessing the people's sin and pleading with Him as their Father.
- Where
- Jerusalem and the cities of Judah in ruins, with the temple burned and Sinai remembered.
- When
- Spoken about 700 to 690 BC on the site's reading, praying in the voice of the generation after the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BC.
- Why
- To give a ruined people words to confess their guilt and to plead for mercy on the ground of their relation to God.
Historical context
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.
Show the rest of the historical context, 3 more paragraphs
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.
Significance
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.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
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.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
The site's own table in src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, probed for this lane, printed no weekly portion and no Haftarah from this chapter, and no festival reading for the book. That table carries the Haftarah of each of the fifty-four weekly portions and the books read whole at the feasts, and it carries nothing for the special Sabbaths or the fast days. This card therefore names no public reading of the chapter and leaves that question to a source that holds those readings.
How it is read
Two commentators on this chapter carry English in the corpus. Rashi is quoted from The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, which Sefaria reports as CC-BY, and every quotation of it is held to fifty words or fewer because the translation is modern. Ibn Ezra is quoted from the version Sefaria titles Commentary of Ibn Ezra on Isaiah - trans. by M. Friedlander, 1873, which it reports as Public Domain.
The verse numbers in this row are the corpus's own, counted by the Hebrew text, and in this chapter a reader counting in an English Bible may land one verse away. Rashi reads the fire of the first verse in the corpus's count as the plagues of Egypt, the hail with fire burning in it. He cites Exodus 9:16 for their purpose, the making known of God's name (Rashi on Isaiah 64:1:1 and 64:1:2). The mountains that flowed at God's presence he reads with Dunash son of Labrat as Sinai (Rashi on Isaiah 64:2:2).
The third verse in the corpus's count, on what no eye had seen, Rashi reads as deeds God did for those who waited for Him. He names where he learned it: "I heard this from Rabbi Jose, and it pleased me". Ibn Ezra reads the verse's last word as the one who will wait (Rashi on Isaiah 64:3:1; Ibn Ezra on Isaiah 64:3:1). Rashi reads the next verses as the loss of the righteous, through whose prayer Israel was saved of old, and the uncleanness that followed their going (Rashi on Isaiah 64:4:1 and 64:5:1).
Ibn Ezra reads the close of the prayer as a people's plea. "But now do unto us according to Thy will", he writes, for Israel has no strength and is like clay. The holy and beautiful house is "The temple". He reads the praise of the fathers there as the song of the Levites (Ibn Ezra on Isaiah 64:7:1, 64:10:1 and 64:10:2). Rashi ends the prayer at the last verse: "Until here is the prophet’s prayer" (Rashi on Isaiah 64:11:1).
The corpus carries two further notes on this chapter without an English text, each marked linked because Sefaria holds no English version of the ref. They stand cited and unquoted at Radak on Isaiah 64:7:1 and 64:9:1.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries forty rabbinic locators on this chapter and the text of none, so each is cited and linked here rather than quoted. On the first verse it holds Avot DeRabbi Natan 33:2, Bava Kamma 4b:2, Bereshit Rabbah 4:2 and Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben Yochai 19:18. It holds Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben Yochai 19:20, Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, Tractate Bachodesh 4:11 and Midrash Lekach Tov, Exodus 22:4:3 there as well. It holds Otzar Midrashim, Baraita of The 32 Midot of Aggadah 1:17 and Tanna DeBei Eliyahu Rabbah 30:5 there as well.
On the third verse it holds Aggadat Bereshit 23:1, Avodah Zarah 65a:5, Berakhot 34b:18 and Berakhot 34b:23. It holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Berakhot 5:18, Ein Yaakov, Avodah Zarah 5:1, Ein Yaakov, Berakhot 5:28 and Ein Yaakov, Shabbat 6:12 there as well. It holds Esther Rabbah 2:4 there as well. On the fourth verse it holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Taanit 1:33, Ein Yaakov, Taanit 1:31, Midrash Lekach Tov, Genesis 2:8:1 and Midrash Sekhel Tov, Bereshit 32:2:2. It holds Taanit 8a:17 there as well. On the fifth verse it holds Bava Batra 9b:1 and Ein Yaakov, Bava Batra 1:14.
On the sixth verse it holds Shemot Rabbah 46:5. On the seventh verse it holds Shemot Rabbah 30:5 and Shemot Rabbah 46:4. On the eighth verse it holds Shemot Rabbah 24:4. On the ninth verse it holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Rosh Hashanah 2:1, Ein Yaakov, Rosh Hashanah 2:3, Midrash Tehillim 9:9 and Rosh Hashanah 23a:11. On the tenth verse it holds Eikhah Rabbah 5:2, Midrash Lekach Tov on Lamentations 2:1:1, Midrash Tehillim 109:1 and Midrash Tehillim 65:1. It holds Moed Katan 26a:23 and Otzar Midrashim, Pesikta, Pesikta Chadata 19 there as well. On the eleventh verse it holds Midrash Tehillim 121:1. What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Isaiah 64:1:1 to 64:11:1, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, reported CC-BY; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Isaiah 64:1:1 to 64:11:1, Commentary of Ibn Ezra on Isaiah - trans. by M. Friedlander, 1873, reported Public Domain; Radak, Radak on Isaiah 64:7:1 and 64:9:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/isaiah/64.json, the 40 Talmud and Midrash locators of this chapter; The site's own files, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, printing no portion and no Haftarah for this chapter and no festival reading for this book.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Oh That Thou Wouldest Rend the Heavens and Come Down
Isaiah 64:1-3
If only You would rend the heavens and come down: The prayer breaks into its boldest request, “If only You would rend the heavens and come down”, the appearing Sinai gave at Exodus 19:18. Verse 2 pictures it as fire that “causes the water to boil”. Verse 3 grounds the plea in memory: “You came down”.
Isaiah 64:1
“Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens - That is, in view of the considerations urged in the previous chapter. In view of the fact that the temple is burned up Isa 64:11; that the city is desolate; that the land lies waste, and that thine own people are carried captive to a distant land. The phrase ‘rend the heavens,’ implies a sudden and sublime descent of Yahweh to execute vengeance on his foes, as if his heart was full of vengeance, and the firmament were violently rent asunder at his sudden appearance.”
2 more voices on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Isaiah 64:1
“God is said to "rend the heavens," when he unexpectedly gives some uncommon and striking proof of his power; and the reason of this mode of expression is, not only that men, when they are hard pressed, commonly look up to heaven, from which they expect assistance, but that miracles, by interrupting the order of nature, open up for themselves an unusual path.”
John Calvin · Commentaries (1554)reformed
Isaiah 64:1
“Rent - A metaphor taken from men, that when they would resolutely help one in distress, break and fling open doors and whatever may hinder. Flow down - That all impediments might be removed out of the way: possibly an allusion to God's coming down upon Mount Sinai, in those terrible flames of fire.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
as fire kindles the brushwood: Barnes gives the Hebrew word for brushwood as dry twigs, and he reads the fire as a picture of mountains consumed. The Septuagint makes it wax melting before the fire. Calvin faults the chapter division here, for the fire and the boiling water give the grounds of the prayer.
Isaiah 64:2
“As when the melting fire burneth “As the fire kindleth the dry fuel” - המסים hamasim. “It means dry stubble, and the root is המס hamas, “says Rabbi Jonah, apud Sal ben Belec in loc. Which is approved by Schultens, Orig. Hebrews p. 30. “The fire kindling the stubble does not seem like enough to the melting of the mountains to be brought as a simile to it. What if thus? - ‘That the mountains might flow down at thy presence!”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Isaiah 64:2
“The day will come when nations shall be made to tremble at the presence of God, though they be ever so numerous and strong. The plea is that God had appeared wonderfully for his people formerly; and thou hast, therefore thou wilt, is good arguing at the throne of grace, Ps. x.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
When You did awesome works: Gill places these awesome works in Egypt, at the sea, in the wilderness and at Sinai. He adds Seir and Paran to the mountains that trembled, citing Judges 5:4. Spurgeon takes them as grounds to expect the same again.
Isaiah 64:3
“When thou didst terrible things, which we looked not for, thou camest down,.... Referring to the wonderful things God did in Egypt, at the Red sea, and in the wilderness, and particularly at Mount Sinai, things that were unexpected, and not looked for; then the Lord came down, and made visible displays of his power and presence, especially on Mount Sinai; see Exo 19:18, the mountains flowed down at thy presence; not Sinai only, but others also; Kimchi says Seir and Paran; Jdg 5:4.”
1 more voice on this verse
Isaiah 64:3
“When thou didst terrible things - In delivering the people from Egypt, and in conducting them to the promised land. Which we looked not for - Which we had never before witnessed, and which we had no right to expect. Thou camest down - As on Mount Sinai. The mountains flowed down - (See the notes above). The reference is to the manifestations of smoke and fire when Yahweh descended on Mount Sinai (see Exo 19:18).”
Isaiah 64:4-5
From ancient times no one has heard: The prayer turns to the uniqueness of this God, for “no eye has seen any God besides You”. Paul's citation at 1 Corinthians 2:9 stands beside it. Verse 5 holds welcome and confession together, “Surely You were angry, for we sinned”, and Barnes notes that its Hebrew is hard.
Isaiah 64:4
“For since the beginning of the world men have not heard “For never have men heard” - St. Paul is generally supposed to have quoted this passage of Isaiah, 1Co 2:9; and Clemens Romanus in his first epistle has made the same quotation, very nearly in the same words with the apostle. But the citation is so very different both from the Hebrew text and the version of the Septuagint, that it seems very difficult, if not impossible, to reconcile them by any literal emendation, without going beyond the bounds of temperate criticism.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Isaiah 64:4
“Waiteth - This may be taken with reference both to the state of grace and glory, those incomprehensible things that are exhibited through Christ in the mysteries of the gospel.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Cross references
Isaiah 64:4
- Quoted in1 Corinthians 2:9Rather, 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.”
'Eye hath not seen... the things which God hath prepared' ('as it is written')
You welcome those who gladly do right: Jerome and Ishodad of Merv read the order of angry and sinned as reversed, with the sin first and God angry after it. Those who remain in sin are saved by mercy alone, Jerome answers. Clarke calls the Hebrew of the question unintelligible as it stands.
Isaiah 64:5
“Thou meetest him - Perhaps there are few verses in the Bible that have given more perplexity to interpreters than this; and after all that has been done, the general impression seems to be, that it is wholly inexplicable, or without meaning - as it certainly is in our translation.”
Isaiah 64:6-7
Each of us has become like something unclean: The confession is at its plainest: “Each of us has become like something unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags”. The Hebrew behind filthy rags names cloth made unclean under the law. Verse 7 names the deeper trouble, prayerlessness: “No one calls on Your name”.
Isaiah 64:6
“We have all by sin become not only obnoxious to God's justice, but odious to his holiness; for sin is that abominable thing which the Lord hates, and cannot endure to look upon. Even all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
Isaiah 64:6
“As filthy rags - עדים iddim. Rab. Mosheh ben Maimon interpretatur עדים iddim, vestes quibus mulier se abstergit post congressum cum marito suo. Alii pannus menstruatus. Alii panni mulieris parientis. - And we ben made as unclene alle we: and as the cloth of the woman rooten blode flowing, all our rigtwisnesses. - Old MS. Bible. If preachers knew properly the meaning of this word, would they make such a liberal use of it in their public ministry? And why should any use a word, the meaning of which he does not understand?”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
strives to take hold of You: Barnes reads strives to take hold as the effort of a man rousing himself from sleep, a picture of a nation asleep in its iniquity. The Berean's delivered follows the Septuagint, where the Hebrew reads dissolved, Clarke reports. Those who served idols did not remember the name, Ephrem explains.
Isaiah 64:7
“And there is none that calleth upon thy name - The nation is corrupt and degenerate. None worship God in sincerity. That stirreth up himself - The word used here (מתעורר mite‛ôrēr) refers to the effort which is requisite to rouse oneself when oppressed by a spirit of heavy slumber; and the idea here is, that the nation was sunk in spiritual torpor, and that the same effort was needful to excite it which was requisite to rouse one who had sunk down to deep sleep. How aptly this describes the state of a sinful world!”
We Are the Clay and Thou Our Potter
Isaiah 64:8-9
But now, O LORD, You are our Father: The prayer turns on “But now” and claims the fatherhood of 63:16: “we are the clay, and You are the potter”. At 45:9 the same figure warns the clay not to dispute, and here it becomes a plea. Verse 9 asks, “do not remember our iniquity forever”.
Isaiah 64:8
“But, now, O Lord, thou art our Father “But thou, O Jehovah, thou art our Father” - For ועתה veattah, and now, five MSS., one of them ancient, and the two oldest editions, 1486 and 1488, have ואתה veattah, and thou, and so the Chaldee seems to have read. The repetition has great force. The other word may be well spared. “But now, O Lord, thou art our Father.” How very affectionate is the complaint in this and the following verses!”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Isaiah 64:8
“Foolish and careless as we are, poor and despised and trampled upon as we are by our enemies, yet still thou art our Father; to thee therefore we return in our repentance, as the prodigal arose and came to his father; to thee we address ourselves by prayer; from whom should we expect relief and succour but from our Father?”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Do not be angry, O LORD, beyond measure: Didymus the Blind teaches that God is very angry at those who sin greatly, and mildly at those with few faults. Henry notes that iniquity deserves to be kept in mind forever, the outcome the plea asks the LORD to spare. Cyril sees a people with no works to plead.
Isaiah 64:9
“Neither remember iniquity - For לעד תזכר laad tizcor, one of my MSS. has לעד תקצף laad tiktsoph, “be not angry,” as in the preceding clause. This has been partially obliterated, and תזכר tizcor, written in the margin by a later hand: but this MS. abounds with words of this kind, all altered by later hands.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Isaiah 64:9
“It is but in a little wrath that God hides his face. They pray that they may not be dealt with according to the desert of their sin: Neither remember iniquity for ever. Such is the evil of sin that it deserves to be remembered for ever; and this is that which they deprecate, that consequence of sin, which is for ever.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Isaiah 64:9
“They entreat God insistently concerning his removal from friendship with them. Since they had come to this situation through their many sins, they wove their prayers with great skill. For since they are unable to mollify the one who could save them with their own works and blameless lives, they now take another route.”
Cyril of Alexandria · written before 444 · Commentary on Isaiah 5:6.64:8-9patristic
Isaiah 64:10-12
Your holy cities have become a wilderness: The prayer names the ruin, the holy cities a wilderness and Jerusalem “a desolation”. Verse 11 grieves the temple, “Our holy and beautiful temple, where our fathers praised You, has been burned with fire”. The chapter ends by asking whether God will “keep silent and afflict us beyond measure”.
Isaiah 64:10
“Thy holy cities are a wilderness,.... Meaning either Zion, the city of David, and Jerusalem; the one called the upper, the other the lower city; now uninhabited, and a mere wilderness: or else the other cities of Judea, in which were formerly synagogues for religious service, and in which dwelt many godly families where the worship of God was kept up; but now a desert, at least quite devoid of true religion and godliness.”
2 more voices on this verse
Isaiah 64:10
“Thy holy cities are a wilderness - It is to be remembered that this is supposed to be spoken near the close of the exile in Babylon. In accordance with the usual custom in this book, Isaiah throws himself forward by prophetic anticipation into that future period, and describes the scene as if it were passing before his eyes (see the Introduction, Section 7). He uses language such as the exiles would use; he puts arguments into their mouths which it would be proper for them to use; he describes the feelings which they would then have.”
Isaiah 64:10
"The city of your sanctuary" (sancti), that is, the sanctuary of the temple, namely, Jerusalem: "the enemy has put out his hand to all her desirable things" (Lam 1:10).
Thomas Aquinas · written before 1274 · Commentary on Isaiahpatristic
Our holy and beautiful temple: Barnes calls the temple holy for its dedication to God, and he says the Hebrew behind beautiful means glorious. Jamieson, Fausset & Brown read the temple burned with fire under Nebuchadnezzar as a figure of its burning under Titus. Jerome adds that sacrifice and Passover ceased in the ruins.
Isaiah 64:11
“Our holy and our beautiful house - The temple. It was called ‘holy,’ because it was dedicated to the service of God; and ‘beautiful,’ on account of its extraordinary magnificence. The original word more properly means glorious. Where our fathers praised thee - Few attachments become stronger than that which is formed for a place of worship where our ancestors have long been engaged in the service of God. It was now a great aggravation of their sufferings, that that beautiful place, consecrated by the fact that their forefathers had long there offered praise to God, was lying in ruins.”
will You restrain Yourself?: Henry hears in Will You keep silent the cry of Psalm 83:1 for God to break His silence. Aquinas reads the question as wonder at the patience of the LORD and sets it beside Habakkuk 1:13. The words beyond measure repeat the plea of verse 9.
Isaiah 64:12
“And he wonders at his patience: "will you refrain yourself, O Lord, upon these things?" "Why look you upon our iniquities?" (Hab 1:13).”
Thomas Aquinas · written before 1274 · Commentary on Isaiahpatristic
1 more voice on this verse
Isaiah 64:12
“Wilt thou refrain thyself - Wilt thou refuse to come to our aid? Wilt thou decline to visit us, and save us from our calamities? Wilt thou hold thy peace - Wilt thou not speak for our rescue, and command us to be delivered? Thus closes this chapter of great tenderness and beauty. It is a model of affectionate and earnest entreaty for the divine interposition in the day of calamity. With such tender and affectionate earnestness may we learn to plead with God!”
Keep studying
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 1538: “Divine Surprises” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition); Cyril of Alexandria, COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 5:6.64:8-9; Didymus the Blind, COMMENTARY ON ZECHARIAH 2:192; Ephrem the Syrian, COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 64:7; Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Isaiah; Ishodad of Merv, COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 64:5; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Isaiah; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Gill; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Isaiah.