15 Look down from heaven, and behold from the habitation of thy holiness and of thy glory; where is thy zeal and thy strength, the feeling of thy bowels and of thy mercies toward me? are they restrained? 16 Doubtless thou art our father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel not acknowledge us; thou, O LORD, art our father; our everlasting Redeemer is thy name. 17 O LORD, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways? Hast thou hardened our heart to thy fear? Return for thy slaves, for the tribes of thine inheritance. 18 The people of thy holiness have possessed the promised land but a little while: our adversaries have trodden down thy sanctuary. 19 We have been like those over whom thou didst never rule, who were never called by thy name.
1 Oh that thou would rend the heavens, that thou would come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence, 2 as when the melting fire burns, the fire causes the waters to boil, to make thy name known to thine adversaries, that the Gentiles may tremble at thy presence! 3 As thou didst come down when thou didst terrible things which we did not look for, that the mountains flowed down at thy presence. 4 Nor have men heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither has the eye seen a God beside thee, that thou might do it again for the one who waits in him. 5 Thou didst come out to meet him that with rejoicing had worked righteous ness. In thy ways they remembered thee. Behold, thou art wroth; for we have sinned: thy ways are eternal, and we shall be saved. 6 But we were all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses as filthy rags; and we all fell as the leaves of a tree; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. 7 And there is none that calls upon thy name, that wakes himself up to take hold of thee; therefore, thou hast hid thy face from us and hast allowed us to wither in the power of our iniquities.
8 But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; such that we all are the work of thy hands. 9 Be not wroth very sore, O LORD, neither remember iniquity for ever; behold, see, we beseech thee, we are all thy people. 10 Thy holy cities are a wilderness, Zion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation. 11 Our house of our Sanctuary and of our glory, where our fathers praised thee, was burned up with fire; and all our precious things were destroyed. 12 Wilt thou refrain thyself regarding these things, O LORD? Wilt thou hold thy peace and afflict us very sore?