What does Isaias Chapter 64 say, and which statements belong to its speaker?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

The prayer asks descent and recalls wonders in distinct tenses. Communal confession uses rag, leaf, wind and clay images. The burned house leads to an unresolved plea for restraint.

Chapter breakdown

Isaias 64 asks the Lord to rend heaven and descend so mountains melt, like burning fire and waters burning with fire, making his name known and nations troubled. The future wonders they cannot bear accompany remembrance that he came down and mountains melted. No ear or eye has perceived another God and the things prepared for those waiting. He meets rejoicing workers of justice who remember his ways; anger, sin and the difficult phrase about being saved in them are retained rather than silently resolved.

The communal confession compares all their justices with a menstruous rag, themselves with fallen leaves and their iniquities with a carrying wind. None calls on his name or rises to hold him; his hidden face accompanies crushing in the hand of iniquity. The edition separately interprets Our justices as pretended works and Jewish ceremonial observance after Christ's new law. This annotation is not turned into a claim that every good deed is worthless.

The prayer names him father and maker, themselves clay and his handiwork, asking that anger cease and iniquity be remembered no longer. All are his people. The city of sanctuary, Sion and Jerusalem, is desolate; the holy and glorious house where fathers praised has burned, and lovely things are ruined. The closing questions ask whether he will refrain, remain silent and afflict vehemently, without supplying an answer.

The story inside

Opening: The prayer asks descent and recalls wonders in distinct tenses. Development: Communal confession uses rag, leaf, wind and clay images. Conclusion: The burned house leads to an unresolved plea for restraint.

Lessons worth keeping

1
The prayer asks descent and recalls wonders in distinct tenses.
2
Communal confession uses rag, leaf, wind and clay images.
3
The burned house leads to an unresolved plea for restraint.

Test your recall

Which images and requests does the speaker use, and what does the chapter leave unresolved?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 83714–83726
64:1. O that thou wouldst rend the heavens, and wouldst come down: the mountains would melt away at thy presence. 64:2. They would melt as at the burning of fire, the waters would burn with fire, that thy name might be made known to thy enemies: that the nations might tremble at thy presence. 64:3. When thou shalt do wonderful things, we shall not bear them: thou didst come down, and at thy presence the mountains melted away. 64:4. From the beginning of the world they have not heard, nor perceived with the ears: the eye hath not seen, O God, besides thee, what things thou hast prepared for them that wait for thee.
Lines 83732–83746
64:6. And we are all become as one unclean, and all our justices as the rag of a menstruous woman: and we have all fallen as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. Our justices, etc.... That is, the works by which we pretended to make ourselves just. This is spoken particularly of the sacrifices, sacraments, and ceremonies of the Jews, after the death of Christ, and the promulgation of the new law. 64:7. There is none that calleth upon thy name: that riseth up, and taketh hold of thee: thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast crushed us in the hand of our iniquity. 64:8. And now, O Lord, thou art our father, and we are clay: and thou art our maker, and we all are the works of thy hands.
Lines 83751–83759
64:10. The city of thy sanctuary is become a desert, Sion is made a desert, Jerusalem is desolate. 64:11. The house of our holiness, and of our glory, where our fathers praised thee, is burnt with fire, and all our lovely things are turned into ruins. 64:12. Wilt thou refrain thyself, O Lord, upon these things, wilt thou hold thy peace, and afflict us vehemently?