Isaiah 64

Isaiah 64 is a chapter in the latter part of the Book of Isaiah. The people's prayer that begins in Isaiah 63:7 comes to its close in this chapter. The plea near the end of chapter 63, "Look down from heaven, and behold" (63:15), leads into the opening of chapter 64, "Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down" (64:1). The Hebrew Bible divides the chapters at a different point, so that verse 1 of chapter 64 in English and Korean Bibles appears there as the latter half of 63:19.

Structure

• Verses 1–4: The people ask the LORD to rend the heavens and come down, so that the mountains would quake and the adversaries and nations would tremble. Recalling the terrible things He did in the past, they confess that no god besides Him has done such things.
• Verses 5–7: The people acknowledge that they have sinned and that the LORD has been angry. They confess, "all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags," and lament that "there is none that calleth upon thy name" and that He has hidden His face from them.
• Verses 8–9: They confess that the LORD is their Father and their potter, and that they are the clay. They ask Him not to remember iniquity forever and plead, "we are all thy people."
• Verses 10–12: They report that the holy cities, Zion, and Jerusalem have become desolate, and that the Temple where their fathers praised Him has been burned with fire. The chapter ends with the question, "wilt thou hold thy peace?"

Key Verses

• Isaiah 64:4: "…neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee…" This verse confesses that God's works cannot be compared with those of any other god. It is commonly regarded as the passage Paul quotes in 1 Corinthians 2:9.
• Isaiah 64:6: "All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags." This verse is frequently cited in discussions of the standing of human righteousness before God.
• Isaiah 64:8: "We are the clay, and thou our potter." This is a classic image of the relationship between the Creator and His creatures.

People and Places

• The LORD: The one to whom the prayer is addressed. The text calls Him "Father" and "potter."
• Zion and Jerusalem: Described as desolate, like a wilderness.
• The Temple in Jerusalem: Called "our holy and our beautiful house" in the text and described as having been burned with fire.

Points for Reflection

• Background and authorship: Verse 11, which speaks of the Temple being burned, is commonly associated with the destruction of Jerusalem by Babylon and the period of the Babylonian exile. The traditional view reads the chapter as prophecy written by the prophet Isaiah looking ahead to the future. Many critical scholars regard Isaiah 56–66 as a postexilic composition and call it "Third Isaiah" (Trito-Isaiah).
• Interpretation of verse 6: The Hebrew expression rendered "filthy rags" is understood to refer to cloth that has become ceremonially unclean. The Reformed tradition frequently cites this verse as evidence that no human righteousness can obtain salvation before God. Other interpreters, attending to the context, read the verse more narrowly as a confession of the sinful condition of the people of that time.
• The potter image: The image in verse 8 is read together with the same image in Isaiah 45:9, Jeremiah 18:1–10, and Romans 9:18–23.

In the Korean Church

In churches that follow the church year and a lectionary (a table assigning Scripture readings according to the church calendar), Isaiah 64:1–9 is read on the First Sunday of Advent in Year B. The potter-and-clay image in verse 8 is often cited in sermons and prayers on devotion and obedience.