Fathers

Isaiah 64

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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, that the nations may tremble at thy presence! When thou didst terrible things which we looked not for, thou camest down, the mountains flowed down at thy presence. 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. Thou meetest him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness, those that remember thee in thy ways: behold, thou art wroth; for we have sinned: in those is continuance, and we shall be saved. 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, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee: for thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast consumed us, because of our iniquities. 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. Be not wroth very sore, O LORD, neither remember iniquity for ever: behold, see, we beseech thee, we are all thy people. 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?

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What the Fathers say

Isaiah 64:6

Eastern Fathers

Cyril of Alexandria

Some translators try to alter the meaning of this passage.… For it is not, they say, that the divine anger was the cause of their misdeeds, but that because they misbehaved, God was angry. For they are afraid lest God's anger be thought of as the effector of sins. I think it ought to be said that there is no condemning the divine anger, if those receiving it were insufficiently motivated to flee the attack of sin. …

Commentary On Isaiah 5:6.64:6-7 ↗

Western Saints

Jerome

Behold, you are angry, and we have sinned; we have always been in them, and we shall be saved. And we have become like the unclean, all of us, like the soiled cloths of our entire righteousness. And we have fallen like leaves, and our iniquities have swept us away like the wind. …

Commentary on Isaiah ↗

Gregory the Dialogist

It is hence that Isaiah laments bitterly, saying, 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, that stirreth up himself to take hold of Thee. Now any of the righteous may sometimes be able to resist the visitations of a present judgment, by the merits of a derived innocency, but they have no power by their own goodness to rid mankind of the woes of the death to come. …

Morals on the Book of Job, Book 9.38 ↗

Thomas Aquinas

And as to the imperfection of their good deeds: "and we are all become as one unclean, and all our justices," because they are wrapped up in other sins: "if I be washed, as it were, with snow waters, and my hands shall shine ever clean, yet you shall plunge me in filth, and my garments shall abhor me" (Job 9:30-31). …

Commentary on Isaiah ↗