When You did awesome works that we did not expect, You came down, and the mountains trembled at Your presence.
Parallel translations
- WEB When you did awesome things which we didn’t look for, you came down, and 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.
- NKJV When You did awesome things for which we did not look, You came down, The mountains shook at Your presence.
- NASB When You did awesome things which we did not expect, You came down, the mountains quaked at Your presence.
- NLT When you came down long ago, you did awesome deeds beyond our highest expectations. And oh, how the mountains quaked!
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The people recall how God did awesome, unexpected things and came down so the mountains quaked. It matters because remembering God's past acts strengthens present hope.
Overview
Looking back, likely to Sinai and the Exodus, they recall God's unexpected and awesome deeds that no one anticipated. This memory grounds their plea for God to act again. The pattern of God doing 'awesome things which we didn't look for' reaches its climax in the unexpected glory of the gospel, the wisdom of God in Christ that no eye had seen (1 Corinthians 2:9, which alludes to the next verse).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- Exod 34:10And the LORD said, “Behold, I am making a covenant. Before all your people I will perform wonders that have never been done in any nation in all the world. All the people among whom you live will see the LORD’s work, for it is an awesome thing that I am doing with you.
- Ps 66:5Come and see the works of God; how awesome are His deeds toward mankind.
- Hab 3:3God came from Teman, and the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah His glory covered the heavens, and His praise filled the earth.
- Ps 65:5–6With awesome deeds of righteousness You answer us, O God of our salvation, the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas.
- Ps 106:22wondrous works in the land of Ham, and awesome deeds by the Red Sea.
- Deut 10:21He is your praise and He is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome wonders that your eyes have seen.
- Ps 66:3Say to God, “How awesome are Your deeds! So great is Your power that Your enemies cower before You.
- Ps 105:27–36They performed His miraculous signs among them, and wonders in the land of Ham.
- Judg 5:4–5O LORD, when You went out from Seir, when You marched from the land of Edom, the earth trembled, the heavens poured out rain, and the clouds poured down water.
- Ps 68:8the earth shook and the heavens poured down rain before God, the One on Sinai, before God, the God of Israel.
- Hab 3:6He stood and measured the earth; He looked and startled the nations; the ancient mountains crumbled; the perpetual hills collapsed. His ways are everlasting.
- Ps 76:12He breaks the spirits of princes; He is feared by the kings of the earth.
- Isa 64:1If only You would rend the heavens and come down, so that mountains would quake at Your presence,
- Deut 4:34Or has any god tried to take as his own a nation out of another nation—by trials, signs, wonders, and war, by a strong hand and an outstretched arm, and by great terrors—as the LORD your God did for you in Egypt, before your eyes?
- 2 Sam 7:23And who is like Your people Israel—the one nation on earth whom God went out to redeem as a people for Himself and to make a name for Himself? You performed great and awesome wonders by driving out nations and their gods from before Your people, whom You redeemed for Yourself from Egypt.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
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 64:3 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.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.