1 Would that you would tear the heavens and come down;

    the mountains would quake before you,

2    as fire kindles brushwood,

    the fire causes water to boil,

  to make your name known to your adversaries,

    that the nations might tremble from your presence.

3   When you did terrible deeds which we did not expect, you came down;

    the mountains quaked because of your presence.

4   And since ancient times they have not heard,

    have not listened,

  no eye has seen a God except you;

    he acts for the one who waits for him.

5   You meet with the one who rejoices,

    one who does righteousness.

  In your ways they remember you.

    Look! You were angry and we sinned against them in ancient times and we were saved.

6   And we all have become like the unclean,

    and all our deeds of justice like a menstrual cloth,

  And we all wither like a leaf,

    and our iniquities take us away like the wind.

7   And there is no one who calls on your name,

    who pulls himself up to keep hold of you,

  for you have hidden your face from us,

    and melted us into the hand of our iniquity.

8   Yet now Yahweh, you are our father;

    we are the clay and you are our potter,

    and we all are the work of your hand.

9   You must not be exceedingly angry, Yahweh,

    and you must not remember iniquity forever!

Look! Behold, now! We all are your people!

10   Your holy cities have become a wilderness;

    Zion has become a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation.

11   Our holy and beautiful temple, where our ancestors praised you has been burned by fire,

    and all our precious objects have become ruins.

12   Will you control yourself because of these, Yahweh?

    Will you be silent?

      And will you oppress us exceedingly?