As Unclean Rags
64 As fire kindles brushwood,
as fire causes water to boil,
make Your Name known to Your foes,
so the nations may tremble before You!
2 When You did awesome things that we were not expecting,
You came down—the mountains shook at Your presence!
3 For from days of old no one has heard,
no ear perceived,
no eye has seen God, except You,
who acts on behalf of the one waiting for Him.
4 You meet him who rejoices in doing righteousness,
who remembers You in Your ways.
Behold, You were angry.
When we keep sinning all the time,
would we be saved?
5 For all of us have become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteousness is like a filthy garment,
and all of us wither like a leaf,
and our iniquities carry us away, like the wind.
6 No one calls on Your Name,
or stirs himself up to take hold of You.
For You have hidden Your face from us,
and have consumed us, because of our iniquities.
7 But now, Adonai, You are our Father.
We are the clay and You are our potter,
We are all the work of Your hand.
8 Do not be angry much more, Adonai,
or remember iniquity forever.
Oh, please see,
we are all Your people!
9 Your holy cities became a wilderness,
Zion has become a wilderness,
Jerusalem a desolation.
10 Our holy and beautiful House, where our fathers praised You,
Has been burned with fire—
all our pleasant things are laid waste.
11 Will You restrain Yourself at these things?
Adonai, will You stay silent,
and afflict us very severely?