Isaiah 64:9

9 Don't be too angry with us, O God. Don't keep a permanent account of wrongdoing. Keep in mind, please, we are your people - all of us.

Isaiah 64:9 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 64:9

Be not wroth very sore, O Lord
They knew not how to deprecate the displeasure of God entirely; having sinned so greatly against him, they were sensible they deserved his wrath; but entreat it might not be hot and very vehement, and carried to the highest pitch, which would be intolerable: neither remember iniquity for ever;
to afflict and punish for it, but forgive it, for not to remember sin is to forgive it; and not inflict the deserved punishment of it, but take off and remove the effects of divine displeasure, which as yet continued, and had a long time, as this petition suggests; and therefore suits better with the present long captivity of the Jews than their seventy years' captivity in Babylon. Behold, see, we beseech thee, we are all thy people;
look upon all our troubles and distresses, and upon us under them, with an eye of pity and compassion; and consider that we are thy people, not only by creation, but by covenant and profession; even everyone of us; or we are all the people thou hast, the Jews looking upon themselves to be the special and peculiar people of God, and the Gentiles as having no claim to such a relation; this is the pure spirit of Judaism. The Targum is,

``lo, it is manifest before thee that we are all of us thy people.''

Isaiah 64:9 In-Context

7 No one prays to you or makes the effort to reach out to you Because you've turned away from us, left us to stew in our sins.

8 Still, God, you are our Father. We're the clay and you're our potter: All of us are what you made us.

9 Don't be too angry with us, O God. Don't keep a permanent account of wrongdoing. Keep in mind, please, we are your people - all of us.

10 Your holy cities are all ghost towns: Zion's a ghost town, Jerusalem's a field of weeds.

11 Our holy and beautiful Temple, which our ancestors filled with your praises, Was burned down by fire, all our lovely parks and gardens in ruins.