Isaiah 64

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¹Oh that you would tear the heavens, that you would come down, that the mountains might quake at your presence. ✦ ²As when fire kindles the brushwood, and the fire causes the water to boil; Make your name known to your adversaries, that the nations may tremble at your presence! ✦ ³When you did awesome things which we didn’t look for, you came down, and the mountains quaked at your presence. ✦ ⁴For from of old men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, nor has the eye seen a God besides you, who works for him who waits for him. ✦ ⁵You meet him who rejoices and does righteousness, those who remember you in your ways. Behold, you were angry, and we sinned. We have been in sin for a long time. Shall we be saved? ✦ ⁶For we have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteousness is like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. ✦ ⁷There is no one who calls on your name, who stirs himself up to take hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us, and have consumed us by means of our iniquities. ✦ ⁸But now, Yahweh, you are our Father. We are the clay, and you our potter. We all are the work of your hand. ✦ ⁹Don’t be furious, Yahweh, and don’t remember iniquity forever. Look and see, we beg you, we are all your people. ✦ ¹⁰Your holy cities have become a wilderness. Zion has become a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation. ✦ ¹¹Our holy and our beautiful house, where our fathers praised you, is burned with fire; and all our pleasant places are laid waste. ✦ ¹²Will you hold yourself back for these things, Yahweh? Will you keep silent, and punish us very severely? ✦

Tap any verse for its study page. Underlined terms mark a concept, person, or place; ✦ marks verses with cross-references.

Where this chapter connects

Ps 79 ·5 Isa 63 ·5 Ps 74 ·4 Hab 3 ·4 Isa 59 ·3 Lam 1 ·3 1 Kgs 8 ·3 Isa 57 ·3

Christ at the center

Isaiah sees him most clearly: the virgin's son Immanuel, the child on David's throne, the shoot from Jesse, the light to the nations, and above all the Suffering Servant pierced for our transgressions (ch. 53).

How Isaiah 64 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

Resources, by level

Lay

★ Start hereVideoBibleProject — video overviews & word studiesBibleProject · 5–10 min · Free · evangelical
Free animated overviews of every book of the Bible, plus themes and Hebrew/Greek word studies — the best visual on-ramp to any book. (Biblical-theology, broadly evangelical, not distinctly Reformed.)
★ Start hereAudioThrough the WordThrough the Word · ~10 min/chapter · Free · evangelical
A clear ~10-minute audio teaching for every one of the Bible's 1,189 chapters — the most systematic free way to study chapter by chapter.

Pastoral

SermonChuck Smith — C2000 SeriesChuck Smith · Free · evangelical
Free verse-by-verse audio through the entire Bible from the founder of Calvary Chapel.

Seminary

★ Start hereCommentaryThe Book of Isaiah (NICOT)John N. Oswalt · Paid · evangelical
The standard evangelical commentary on Isaiah — thorough and devotionally warm.

Commentaries & study tools

VideoBibleProject — Isaiah videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
VideoWatch teaching on Isaiah 64YouTube · Lay · Free
Sermons and chapter teaching from across YouTube.
CommentaryEnduring Word — Isaiah 64David Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical
Readable, verse-by-verse exposition of the whole chapter.
CommentaryMatthew Henry on IsaiahMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
ReferenceBlue Letter Bible — Isaiah 64Blue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free
Interlinear, lexicon, and study tools across the chapter.

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