Text -- Isaiah 64:1-3 (NET)

64:1 If only you would tear apart the sky and come down! The mountains would tremble before you! 64:2 As when fire ignites dry wood, or fire makes water boil, let your adversaries know who you are, and may the nations shake at your presence! 64:3 When you performed awesome deeds that took us by surprise, you came down, and the mountains trembled before you.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Isa 64:1

¹ sn In BHS the chapter division occurs in a different place from the English Bible: 64:1 ET (63:19b HT) and 64:2-12 (64:1-11 HT). Beginning with 65:1 the verse numbers in the English Bible and the Hebrew Bible are again the same.

² tn Or “the heavens.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heavens” or “sky” depending on the context.

³ tn Or “quake.” נָזֹלּוּ (nazollu) is from the verbal root זָלַל (zalal, “quake”; see HALOT 272 s.v. II זלל). Perhaps there is a verbal allusion to Judg 5:5, the only other passage where this verb occurs. In that passage the poet tells how the Lord’s appearance to do battle caused the mountains to shake.

NET Notes: Isa 64:2

¹ tn Heb “to make known your name to your adversaries.” Perhaps the infinitive construct with preposition -לְ (lamed) should be construed with “come down” in v. 1a, or subordinated to the following line: “To make known your name to your adversaries, let the nations shake from before you.”

NET Notes: Isa 64:3

¹ tn Heb “[for which] we were not waiting.”

² tn See the note at v. 1.