1Oh, that thou wouldest break the heavens, and come down, and that the mountains might melt at thy presence!
2As the melting fire burned, as the fire caused the waters to boil, (that thou mightest declare thy Name to thine adversaries) the people did tremble at thy presence.
3When thou didst terrible things, which we looked not for, thou camest down, and the mountains melted at thy presence.
4For since the beginning of the world, they have not heard nor understood with the ear, neither hath the eye seen another God beside thee, which doeth so to him that waiteth for him.
5Thou didst meet him, that rejoiced in thee, and did justly: they remembered thee in thy ways: behold, thou art angry, for we have sinned: yet in them is continuance, and we shall be saved.
6But we have all been as an unclean thing, and all our righteousness is as filthy cloths, and we all do fade like a leaf, and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away.
7And there is none that calleth upon thy Name, neither that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee: for thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast consumed us because of our iniquities.
8But now, O Lord, thou art our Father: we are the clay, and thou art our potter, and we all are the work of thine hands.
9Be not angry, O Lord, above measure, neither remember iniquity forever: Lo, we beseech thee, behold, we are all thy people.
10Thine holy cities lie waste: Zion is a wilderness, and Jerusalem a desert.
11The house of our Sanctuary, and of our glory, where our fathers praised thee, is burnt up with fire, and all our pleasant things are wasted.
12Wilt thou hold thyself still at these things, O Lord? wilt thou hold thy peace and afflict us above measure?