As when brushwood is set ablaze, or fire makes the water boil! Thus your name would be made known to your enemies and the nations would tremble before you,
While you wrought awesome deeds we could not hope for,
such as they had not heard of from of old. No ear has ever heard, no eye ever seen, any God but you doing such deeds for those who wait for him.
Would that you might meet us doing right, that we were mindful of you in our ways! Behold, you are angry, and we are sinful;
all of us have become like unclean men, all our good deeds are like polluted rags; We have all withered like leaves, and our guilt carries us away like the wind.
There is none who calls upon your name, who rouses himself to cling to you; For you have hidden your face from us and have delivered us up to our guilt.
Yet, O LORD, you are our father; we are the clay and you the potter: we are all the work of your hands.
Be not so very angry, LORD, keep not our guilt forever in mind; look upon us, who are all your people.
Your holy cities have become a desert, Zion is a desert, Jerusalem a waste.
Our holy and glorious temple in which our fathers praised you Has been burned with fire; all that was dear to us is laid waste.
Can you hold back, O LORD, after all this? Can you remain silent, and afflict us so severely?
