When thou didst terrible things which we looked not for, thou camest down, the mountains flowed down at thy 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.
- BSB When You did awesome works that we did not expect, You came down, and the mountains trembled at Your 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 he said, Behold, I make a covenant: before all thy people I will do marvels, such as have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation: and all the people among which thou art shall see the work of the LORD: for it is a terrible thing that I will do with thee.
- Ps 66:5Come and see the works of God: he is terrible in his doing toward the children of men.
- Hab 3:3God came from Teman, and the Holy One from mount Paran. Selah. His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise.
- Ps 65:5–6By terrible things in righteousness wilt thou answer us, O God of our salvation; who art the confidence of all the ends of the earth, and of them that are afar off upon the sea:
- Ps 106:22Wondrous works in the land of Ham, and terrible things by the Red sea.
- Deut 10:21He is thy praise, and he is thy God, that hath done for thee these great and terrible things, which thine eyes have seen.
- Ps 66:3Say unto God, How terrible art thou in thy works! through the greatness of thy power shall thine enemies submit themselves unto thee.
- Ps 105:27–36They shewed his signs among them, and wonders in the land of Ham.
- Judg 5:4–5LORD, when thou wentest out of Seir, when thou marchedst out of the field of Edom, the earth trembled, and the heavens dropped, the clouds also dropped water.
- Ps 68:8The earth shook, the heavens also dropped at the presence of God: even Sinai itself was moved at the presence of God, the God of Israel.
- Hab 3:6He stood, and measured the earth: he beheld, and drove asunder the nations; and the everlasting mountains were scattered, the perpetual hills did bow: his ways are everlasting.
- Ps 76:12He shall cut off the spirit of princes: he is terrible to the kings of the earth.
- Isa 64:1Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence,
- Deut 4:34Or hath God assayed to go and take him a nation from the midst of another nation, by temptations, by signs, and by wonders, and by war, and by a mighty hand, and by a stretched out arm, and by great terrors, according to all that the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?
- 2 Sam 7:23And what one nation in the earth is like thy people, even like Israel, whom God went to redeem for a people to himself, and to make him a name, and to do for you great things and terrible, for thy land, before thy people, which thou redeemedst to thee from Egypt, from the nations and their gods?
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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.