Isaiah 64:4

64:4 Since ancient times no one has heard or perceived, ¹ 

no eye has seen any God besides you,

who intervenes for those who wait for him.

Isaiah 64:1

64:1 (63:19b) ²  If only you would tear apart the sky ³  and come down!

The mountains would tremble ⁴  before you!

Colossians 2:9

2:9 For in him all the fullness of deity lives ⁵  in bodily form,

[64:4]  ¹ tn Heb “from ancient times they have not heard, they have not listened.”

[64:1]  ² 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.

[64:1]  ³ tn Or “the heavens.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heavens” or “sky” depending on the context.

[64:1]  ⁴ 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.

[2:9]  ⁵ sn In him all the fullness of deity lives. The present tense in this verse (“lives”) is significant. Again, as was stated in the note on 1:19, this is not a temporary dwelling, but a permanent one. Paul’s point is polemical against the idea that the fullness of God dwells anywhere else, as the Gnostics believed, except in Christ alone. At the incarnation, the second person of the Trinity assumed humanity, and is forever the God-man.