Isaiah 64: Oh That Thou Wouldest Rend the Heavens

"Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence, As when the melting fire burneth, the fire causeth the waters to boil, to make thy name known to thine adversaries… For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him" (64:1–4).

"But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. And there is none that calleth upon thy name… But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand" (vv. 6–8).

"Thy holy cities are a wilderness, Zion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation. Our holy and our beautiful house, where our fathers praised thee, is burned up with fire: and all our pleasant things are laid waste. Wilt thou refrain thyself for these things, O LORD? wilt thou hold thy peace, and afflict us very sore?" (vv. 10–12).

When was the lament written?

The lament (63:7–64:12) speaks of the sanctuary trampled (63:18) and "our holy and our beautiful house… burned up with fire" (64:11). Most scholars date it between the destruction of 587 BC and the rebuilding completed in 515 BC (Ezra 6:15), perhaps close to the exile; some place it later, in a time when the rebuilt temple seemed to some of the community no true restoration; a few propose a later desecration. No single date can be assigned without explaining these rival proposals: the text names no king and no event. Compare the communal laments of Psalms 74, 79 and 89 and the book of Lamentations.

Collective guilt and the potter

The lament confesses a whole people's sin ("we are all as an unclean thing") while also asking why God let them stray (63:17). It does not resolve the tension between human responsibility and divine hiddenness. The potter-and-clay image, used in 29:16 and 45:9 to rebuke those who question God, is used here as an appeal: the potter is responsible for what he has made.

"Eye hath not seen" (1 Corinthians 2:9)

Paul introduces his words with "as it is written": "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." The thought is close to 64:4, but the wording matches neither the Hebrew nor the Greek, and "them that love him" replaces "him that waiteth for him." Origen reported that the words were found in an Apocalypse of Elijah; others see a free combination of 64:4 with 65:17 and 52:15 (reported). Paul's use is interpretive, not identical wording.