Isaiah / Chapter 64

Isaiah 64

12 verses • Westminster Leningrad Codex 2 traditions available

Translator's Introduction

What This Chapter Is About

Isaiah 64 continues the communal lament that began in 63:7 without a natural break. The chapter opens with the most desperate prayer in the prophetic literature: 'Oh, that You would rend the heavens and come down!' The community confesses that all its righteousness is like a polluted garment, that sin has carried them away like wind, and that no one stirs himself to take hold of God. Yet the prayer pivots on a single image of astonishing trust: 'We are the clay, and You are our potter; we are all the work of Your hand.' The chapter closes with a question that hangs unanswered: 'Will You restrain Yourself, LORD? Will You keep silent and afflict us so severely?'

What Makes This Chapter Remarkable

Verse 4 contains a statement Paul quotes in 1 Corinthians 2:9: 'No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who wait for Him.' Verse 6 — 'all our righteous acts are like a polluted garment' — is among the most frequently cited Old Testament texts in Christian theology, establishing that human merit cannot approach divine holiness. The potter-clay metaphor (v.8) anchors Paul's argument in Romans 9:20-21.

Translation Friction

We render beged iddim (v.6) as 'polluted garment' rather than 'filthy rags' (KJV) to preserve the Hebrew sense of ritual impurity without the archaic English. The term refers specifically to a garment rendered ceremonially unclean. We have maintained the Hebrew chapter division (which places 'Rend the heavens' at 63:19b in MT) but follow the English versification for reader accessibility.

Connections

The 'rend the heavens' cry (v.1) finds its answer at Jesus' baptism, where the heavens are 'torn open' (Mark 1:10 — schizo, the same verb the LXX uses for Isaiah's qara'). The polluted-garment theology (v.6) connects to Zechariah 3:3-5 (Joshua's filthy garments replaced) and Revelation 19:8 (fine linen given to the saints). The potter-clay image (v.8) echoes Jeremiah 18:1-6 and is developed by Paul in Romans 9:20-21. **Tradition comparisons:** The Dead Sea Scrolls (1QIsaiah-a) preserve this chapter with notable variants: Verse 4 (English v. 4) contains the famous 'eye has not seen, ear has not heard' passage quoted in 1 Corinthians 2:9, and the scroll preserves a reading very close to MT. Verse 8 has the potter-clay metaphor with stable text. Verse 11 (English v. 11) contains the lament over the destroyed Temple .... See the [DSS Isaiah comparison](/dss-isaiah/64). The Latin Vulgate shaped Western theology here: Quasi pannus menstruatae (like a menstrual cloth) — Jerome's graphic rendering of beged iddim (garment of periods/impurity) became a standard proof-text in Western hamartiology for the total corruptio... See the [Vulgate Isaiah](/vulgate/isaiah).

Isaiah 64:1

לוּא קָרַעְתָּ שָׁמַיִם יָרַדְתָּ מִפָּנֶיךָ הָרִים נָזֹלּוּ׃

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

KJV Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence,

Notes & Key Terms

Translator Notes

  1. This verse continues directly from the lament of 63:19 — the prayer has built to a crescendo. 'Rend' (qara') is violent language: not open, not part, but tear apart, as one tears a garment in grief. The community wants God to break through the barrier between heaven and earth. Mark 1:10 uses the same verb (schizo) when the heavens are 'torn open' at Jesus' baptism — the prayer of Isaiah 64:1 is answered at the Jordan.
1 tradition available

Dead Sea Scrolls (1QIsaᵃ, 125 BCE)minor

"Oh that You would rend the heavens and come down!"

The scroll uses the fuller suffix form -tah for both verbs. Note: in the Hebrew versification this is 63:19b, but in the English it is 64:1. The dramatic plea for theophany — 'Oh that You would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might quake at Your presence!' — is identical in both texts.

Isaiah 64:2

כִּקְדֹחַ אֵשׁ הֲמָסִים מַיִם תִּבְעֶה־אֵשׁ לְהוֹדִיעַ שִׁמְךָ לְצָרֶיךָ מִפָּנֶיךָ גּוֹיִם יִרְגָּזוּ׃

As fire kindles brushwood, as fire causes water to boil — come, to make Your name known to Your adversaries, that the nations may tremble at Your presence!

KJV As when the melting fire burneth, the fire causeth the waters to boil, to make thy name known to thine adversaries, that the nations may tremble at thy presence.

Notes & Key Terms

Translator Notes

  1. The imagery piles up: fire on dry brush, water boiling — both images of irresistible, transformative power. The purpose of the theophany is not spectacle but revelation: 'to make Your name known.' The nations' trembling echoes the Sinai theophany (Exodus 19:16-18).
1 tradition available

Dead Sea Scrolls (1QIsaᵃ, 125 BCE)minor

"as fire kindles"

The scroll uses plene spelling for qedoach ('kindling') with waw. The fire imagery — as when fire kindles brushwood, as fire causes water to boil — is identical in both texts.

Isaiah 64:3

בַּעֲשׂוֹתְךָ נוֹרָאוֹת לֹא נְקַוֶּה יָרַדְתָּ מִפָּנֶיךָ הָרִים נָזֹלּוּ׃

When You did awesome things we did not expect, You came down; the mountains quaked at Your presence.

KJV When thou didst terrible things which we looked not for, thou camest down, the mountains flowed down at thy presence.

Notes & Key Terms

Translator Notes

  1. Memory and petition merge: the community recalls that God once did come down (at Sinai, at the Exodus) and the mountains did tremble. The 'awesome things we did not expect' acknowledges that God's interventions exceed human anticipation — a theme Paul develops in 1 Corinthians 2:9.
Isaiah 64:4

וּמֵעוֹלָם לֹא־שָׁמְעוּ לֹא הֶאֱזִינוּ עַיִן לֹא־רָאָתָה אֱלֹהִים זוּלָתְךָ יַעֲשֶׂה לִמְחַכֵּה־לוֹ׃

From of old no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen a God besides You, who acts on behalf of those who wait for Him.

KJV For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him.

Notes & Key Terms

Translator Notes

  1. This is the verse Paul quotes (freely, from the LXX) in 1 Corinthians 2:9: 'No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.' In its original context, the statement grounds the plea of verses 1-3: the God they are calling upon is utterly unique — no other god acts for those who wait. The word mechakkeh ('wait') implies patient, expectant trust.
1 tradition available

Dead Sea Scrolls (1QIsaᵃ, 125 BCE)theological

"No eye has seen a God besides You, who acts for those who wait for Him"

The scroll spells lo with waw-aleph and uses fuller suffix forms, but the substantive reading is identical. This verse is quoted (loosely) by Paul in 1 Corinthians 2:9: 'What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love Him.' Paul's quotation expands significantly beyond the Hebrew — he appears to combine Isaiah 64:4 with Isaiah 65:17 and possibly extra-biblical tradition.

Isaiah 64:5

פָּגַעְתָּ אֶת־שָׂשׂ וְעֹשֵׂה צֶדֶק בִּדְרָכֶיךָ יִזְכְּרוּךָ הֵן־אַתָּה קָצַפְתָּ וַנֶּחֱטָא בָּהֶם עוֹלָם וְנִוָּשֵׁעַ׃

You meet the one who joyfully does righteousness, those who remember You in Your ways. But You were angry, and we sinned; in our sins we have continued long. Can we still be saved?

KJV Thou meetest him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness, those that remember thee in thy ways: behold, thou art wroth; for we have sinned: in those is continuance, and we shall be saved.

Notes & Key Terms

Translator Notes

  1. The verse pivots from God's character (He meets the righteous joyfully) to Israel's condition (they sinned under His anger). The final question — 'Can we still be saved?' — is our rendering of the notoriously difficult venivvashe'a, which could be declarative ('we shall be saved') or interrogative. The context of lament favors the anguished question.
1 tradition available

Dead Sea Scrolls (1QIsaᵃ, 125 BCE)moderate

"You meet him who joyfully works righteousness"

The scroll uses fuller suffix -tah and plene spelling for oseh ('one who does'). The verse contains the powerful confession that follows: 'Behold, You were angry and we sinned; in our sins we have been a long time, and shall we be saved?'

Isaiah 64:6

וַנְּהִי כַטָּמֵא כֻּלָּנוּ וּכְבֶגֶד עִדִּים כָּל־צִדְקֹתֵינוּ וַנָּבֶל כֶּעָלֶה כֻּלָּנוּ וַעֲוֹנֵנוּ כָּרוּחַ יִשָּׂאֻנוּ׃

We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all wither like a leaf, and our iniquities carry us away like the wind.

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

Notes & Key Terms 1 term

Key Terms

צִדְקֹתֵינוּ tsidqotenu
"our righteous deeds" — our righteousnesses, righteous acts, meritorious deeds

Tsedaqah here refers to human attempts at righteousness, not God's righteousness. The plural (tsidqot) emphasizes that even the sum total of Israel's best moral efforts amounts to ritual impurity before God. This is not cynicism but confession.

Translator Notes

  1. Beged iddim ('polluted garment') refers to a garment rendered ceremonially unclean — the language of Levitical impurity applied to moral effort. The double image (unclean person + unclean garment) makes the point inescapable: neither the worshiper nor the worship is acceptable. The leaf and wind images add transience to impurity — sin not only defiles but dissolves.
2 traditions available

Dead Sea Scrolls (1QIsaᵃ, 125 BCE)minor

"and we melt away"

The scroll uses plene spelling for namog ('we melt/fade'). The confession that 'we have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment; we all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities like the wind carry us away' is identical in meaning. This is one of the most searching confessions of human sinfulness in the Hebrew Bible.

Latin Vulgate (Jerome, 405 CE)

"And we have all become as one unclean, and all our righteousnesses are as the cloth of a menstruous woman"

Quasi pannus menstruatae (like a menstrual cloth) — Jerome's graphic rendering of beged iddim (garment of periods/impurity) became a standard proof-text in Western hamartiology for the total corruption of human works apart from grace, heavily cited by Reformers.

Isaiah 64:7

וְאֵין־קוֹרֵא בְשִׁמְךָ מִתְעוֹרֵר לְהַחֲזִיק בָּךְ כִּי־הִסְתַּרְתָּ פָנֶיךָ מִמֶּנּוּ וַתְּמוּגֵנוּ בְּיַד־עֲוֹנֵנוּ׃

There is no one who calls on Your name, who rouses himself to take hold of You. For You have hidden Your face from us and have delivered us into the hand of our iniquities.

KJV And there is none that calleth upon thy name, 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.

Notes & Key Terms

Translator Notes

  1. The confession deepens: not only are their righteous deeds polluted, but no one even tries to pray. 'Rouses himself to take hold of You' (mit'orer lehachaziq bakh) suggests the spiritual lethargy that follows divine abandonment. The hidden face (hester panim) is the ultimate theological crisis — God has withdrawn His presence. The final phrase is devastating: God has handed them over not to enemies but to their own sins.
1 tradition available

Dead Sea Scrolls (1QIsaᵃ, 125 BCE)minor

"there is no one who calls upon Your name"

The scroll uses fuller suffix -kha. The lament continues: 'No one calls on Your name, no one rouses himself to take hold of You; for You have hidden Your face from us and delivered us into the hand of our iniquities.'

Isaiah 64:8

וְעַתָּה יְהוָה אָבִינוּ אָתָּה אֲנַחְנוּ הַחֹמֶר וְאַתָּה יֹצְרֵנוּ וּמַעֲשֵׂה יָדְךָ כֻּלָּנוּ׃

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

KJV But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand.

Notes & Key Terms

Translator Notes

  1. After the devastating confession of verses 5-7, the prayer makes its most audacious move: 'But now' (ve'attah) signals a pivot from despair to appeal. The basis of hope is not Israel's worthiness but God's identity as Father and potter. The clay cannot unmake itself, but neither can the potter abandon what his hands have shaped. Paul develops this image in Romans 9:20-21; Jeremiah 18:1-6 provides the prophetic parallel.
1 tradition available

Dead Sea Scrolls (1QIsaᵃ, 125 BCE)minor

"But now, O LORD, You are our Father; we are the clay"

The scroll uses plene spelling for chomer ('clay'). The potter-clay metaphor is identical: 'You are our Father; we are the clay and You are our potter; we are all the work of Your hand.' This is the second direct address to God as Father in this lament (cf. 63:16). The metaphor is echoed by Paul in Romans 9:20-21.

Isaiah 64:9

אַל־תִּקְצֹף יְהוָה עַד־מְאֹד וְאַל־לָעַד תִּזְכֹּר עָוֹן הֵן הַבֶּט־נָא עַמְּךָ כֻלָּנוּ׃

Do not be angry beyond measure, LORD, and do not remember iniquity forever. Behold — please look — we are all Your people!

KJV Be not wroth very sore, O LORD, neither remember iniquity for ever: behold, see, we beseech thee, we are all thy people.

Notes & Key Terms

Translator Notes

  1. The prayer moves from theological argument (You are our potter) to direct petition (do not be angry). The double imperative 'behold — please look' (hen habbet-na') is urgent, almost desperate. The final appeal — 'we are all Your people' — is the covenant claim stripped bare: whatever we have done, we still belong to You.
1 tradition available

Dead Sea Scrolls (1QIsaᵃ, 125 BCE)minor

"Do not be exceedingly angry, O LORD"

The scroll uses plene spelling for tiqtsof ('be angry') and me'od ('exceedingly'). The plea not to remember iniquity forever is identical in both texts.

Isaiah 64:10

עָרֵי קָדְשְׁךָ הָיוּ מִדְבָּר צִיּוֹן מִדְבָּר הָיָתָה יְרוּשָׁלִַם שְׁמָמָה׃

Your holy cities have become a wilderness; Zion has become a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation.

KJV Thy holy cities are a wilderness, Zion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation.

Notes & Key Terms

Translator Notes

  1. The general ('holy cities') narrows to the specific (Zion, Jerusalem). The repetition of 'wilderness' (midbar) is deliberate — the promised land has reverted to the pre-settlement condition. This is not merely military defeat but theological reversal: the holy cities are unholy, and the garden has become desert.
1 tradition available

Dead Sea Scrolls (1QIsaᵃ, 125 BCE)minor

"Your holy cities have become a wilderness"

The scroll uses fuller suffix -kha and plene spelling for qodesh. The lament over Zion and Jerusalem becoming a wilderness and desolation is identical in meaning.

Isaiah 64:11

בֵּית קָדְשֵׁנוּ וְתִפְאַרְתֵּנוּ אֲשֶׁר הִלְלוּךָ אֲבֹתֵינוּ הָיָה לִשְׂרֵפַת אֵשׁ וְכָל־מַחֲמַדֵּינוּ הָיָה לְחָרְבָּה׃

Our holy and beautiful house, where our fathers praised You, has been burned with fire, and all our treasured places lie in ruins.

KJV Our holy and our beautiful house, where our fathers praised thee, is burned up with fire: and all our pleasant things are laid waste.

Notes & Key Terms

Translator Notes

  1. The Temple is not named directly but described by what it meant: 'our holy and beautiful house, where our fathers praised You.' The communal memory of worship makes the destruction personal. 'All our treasured places' (kol machamaddenu) extends the grief beyond the Temple to every cherished site. The Hebrew past tense (hayah) confirms accomplished destruction.
1 tradition available

Dead Sea Scrolls (1QIsaᵃ, 125 BCE)moderate

"our holy and beautiful house"

The scroll uses plene spelling for qodshenu ('our holiness'). The lament over the Temple — 'Our holy and beautiful house, where our fathers praised You, has been burned by fire, and all our pleasant places have become ruins' — is identical in meaning. This may refer to the Babylonian destruction of 586 BCE or may be a literary/eschatological construction.

Isaiah 64:12

הַעַל־אֵלֶּה תִתְאַפַּק יְהוָה תֶּחֱשֶׁה וּתְעַנֵּנוּ עַד־מְאֹד׃

After all this, will You restrain Yourself, LORD? Will You keep silent and afflict us beyond measure?

KJV Wilt thou refrain thyself for these things, O LORD? wilt thou hold thy peace, and afflict us very sore?

Notes & Key Terms

Translator Notes

  1. The lament ends not with resolution but with a raw question — the prayer that began in 63:7 concludes with no divine answer recorded. 'Will You restrain Yourself?' (tit'appaq) echoes 63:15, where they asked if God's compassion was 'withheld.' The silence of God is the chapter's final and most painful theme. The answer will come — but not until chapter 65.
1 tradition available

Dead Sea Scrolls (1QIsaᵃ, 125 BCE)minor

"After all this, will You restrain Yourself, O LORD?"

No meaningful variant. The closing question of the lament — 'Will You keep silent and afflict us so severely?' — is identical in both texts. The chapter ends with a raw, unresolved plea, setting up God's response in chapters 65-66.

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