1   Oh that you would tear the heavens, that you would come down, that the mountains might quake at your presence, 2   as when fire kindles the brushwood, and the fire causes the waters to boil; to make your name known to your adversaries, that the nations may tremble at your presence. 3   When you did awesome things which we did not look for, you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence. 4   Since ancient times no one has heard, and no ear has perceived, and no eye has seen a God besides you, who works for him who waits for him. 5   You meet him who rejoices and works righteousness, those who remember you in your ways. Look, you were angry, and we sinned. We have been in sin for a long time; and shall we be saved? 6   For we have all become as one who is unclean, and all our righteousness is as a polluted garment: and we all fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. 7   There is none who calls on your name, who stirs up himself to take hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us, and have consumed us by means of our iniquities. 8   But now, LORD, you are our Father, and we are clay, and you are our potter; and we all are the work of your hands. 9   Do not be furious, LORD, neither remember iniquity forever: see, look, we beg you, we are all your people. 10   Your holy cities have become a wilderness, Zion has become like a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation. 11   Our holy and our beautiful house, where our fathers praised you, is burned with fire; and all our pleasant places are laid waste. 12   Will you refrain yourself for these things, LORD? Will you hold your peace, and afflict us very severely?

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