When You did awesome things which we did not expect, You came down, the mountains quaked 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.
- 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.
- 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 34:10He said, “Behold, I make a covenant: before all your people I will do marvels, such as have not been worked in all the earth, nor in any nation; and all the people among which you are shall see the work of Yahweh; for it is an awesome thing that I do with you.
- Ps 66:5Come, and see God’s deeds — awesome work on behalf of the children of men.
- Hab 3:3God came from Teman, the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah. His glory covered the heavens, and his praise filled the earth.
- Ps 65:5–6By awesome deeds of righteousness, you answer us, God of our salvation. You who are the hope of all the ends of the earth, of those who are far away on the sea;
- Ps 106:22Wondrous works in the land of Ham, and awesome things by the Red Sea.
- Deut 10:21He is your praise, and he is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome things, which your eyes have seen.
- Ps 66:3Tell God, “How awesome are your deeds! Through the greatness of your power, your enemies submit themselves to you.
- Ps 105:27–36They performed miracles among them, and wonders in the land of Ham.
- Judg 5:4–5“Yahweh, when you went out of Seir, when you marched out of the field of Edom, the earth trembled, the sky also dropped. Yes, the clouds dropped water.
- Ps 68:8The earth trembled. The sky also poured down rain at the presence of the God of Sinai — at the presence of God, the God of Israel.
- Hab 3:6He stood, and shook the earth. He looked, and made the nations tremble. The ancient mountains were crumbled. The age-old hills collapsed. His ways are eternal.
- Ps 76:12He will cut off the spirit of princes. He is feared by the kings of the earth.
- Isa 64:1Oh that you would tear the heavens, that you would come down, that the mountains might quake at your presence.
- Deut 4:34Or has God tried to go and take a nation for himself from among another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, by war, by a mighty hand, by an outstretched arm, and by great terrors, according to all that Yahweh your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?
- 2 Sam 7:23What one nation in the earth is like your people, even like Israel, whom God went to redeem to himself for a people, and to make himself a name, and to do great things for you, and awesome things for your land, before your people, whom you redeemed to yourself out of 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.