to rend · verb, qal perfect, 2nd person masculine singular
heavens
שָׁמַ֙יִם֙sha.Ma.yim
H8064
the sky (as aloft · noun, common masculine plural absolute
down
יָרַ֔דְתָּya.Rad.ta
H3381
to descend (literally · verb, qal perfect, 2nd person masculine singular
mountains
הָרִ֥יםha.Rim
H2022
a mountain or range of hills (sometimes used figurative… · noun, common masculine plural absolute
down
נָזֹֽלּוּna.Zo.lu
H2151
to shake (as in the wind) · verb, niphal perfect, 3rd person common plural
presence
מִפָּנֶ֖יךָmi.pa.Nei.kha
H6440
the face (as the part that turns) · preposition + noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Micah 1:3-4 For, behold, the LORD cometh forth out of his place, and will come down, and tread upon the high places of the earth.
Exodus 19:18-19 And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the LORD descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furn…
Nahum 1:5-6 The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt, and the earth is burned at his presence, yea, the world, and all that dwell therein.
Mark 1:10 And straightway coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens opened, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon him:
Revelation 20:11 And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for…
Psalms 68:8 The earth shook, the heavens also dropped at the presence of God: even Sinai itself was moved at the presence of God, the God of Israel.
Psalms 144:5-6 Bow thy heavens, O LORD, and come down: touch the mountains, and they shall smoke.
Isaiah 63:15 Look down from heaven, and behold from the habitation of thy holiness and of thy glory: where is thy zeal and thy strength, the sounding of…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Isaiah 64:1-5
Here, I. The petition is that God would appear wonderfully for them now, Isa 64:1, Isa 64:2. Their case was represented in the close of the foregoing chapter as very sad and very hard, and in this case it was time to cry, "Help, Lord; O that God would manifest his zeal and his strength!" They had prayed (Isa 63:15) that God would look down from heaven; here they pray that he would come down to deliver them, as he had said, Exo 3:8. 1. They desire that God would in his providence manifest himself both to them and for them. When God works some extraordinary deliverance for his people he is said to shine forth, to show himself strong; so, here, they pray that he would rend the heavens and come…
O that thou wouldest rend the heavens - This seems to allude to the wonderful manifestation of God upon Mount Sinai.
John Gill on Isaiah 64:1
O that thou wouldst rend the heavens, that thou wouldst come down,.... Before, the church prayed that the Lord would look down from heaven and behold, Isaiah 63:15, now that he would open the heavens, and descend from thence; not by change of place, for he fills heaven and earth with his presence; but by some visible display of his power, in destroying her enemies, and delivering her from them. Some take this to be a prayer for the first coming of Christ from heaven to earth, by his incarnation, in order to redeem and save his people; and others that it is for his second coming to judgment, to take vengeance on his adversaries, when his wrath will burn like fire; but rather it is for his spi…
O that thou wouldest rend the heavens! The particle lv' (lu) appears to me, in this passage, to denote a wish; for, although it has many significations, yet the context shews that this signification is more appropriate to this passage than any other. Here believers burst forth into earnest prayer, as usually happens, when in sore adversity we do not find plain terms to be sufficiently forcible for our purpose.
God is said to "rend the heavens," when he unexpectedly gives some uncommon and striking proof of his power; and the reason of this mode of expression is, not only that men, when they are hard pressed, commonly look up to heaven, from which they expect assistance, but that miracles, b…
The Church Fathers
David also said "Lord, bend the skies and come down," and Moses said, "Show me your face that I might see you clearly." For no one saw more closely than Moses when receiving the law of God. God was speaking from the clouds, and [Moses] witnessed that same presence of his majesty. How, since no one saw God closer than he did, could [Moses] demand a view that was closer still when he said, "Show me yourself, that I might see you clearly"? Indeed, we can pray the same thing to happen that the apostle declared already occurred; the Lord openly revealed himself in the flesh and clearly appeared in the world, was openly assumed into glory; the saints saw the things with their physical eyes that they had previously seen with their spiritual sight.
This power is present to you, that of which we did not hear from all time, nor were we able to say (which would be bearing false witness) that someone else was such a God, in the way that our eyes have now seen the effects in such works. We have neither seen God nor divine deeds except from you—to those waiting to see, you provide vision and understanding, which coming from outside ourselves is set in place.… "For no one can see God," and "no one can see my face and live." But it seems that the Christ of God is praised through these things, he who talked with Moses in the desert and was made visible to all people through his glory appearing to all, about which was said, "we have beheld his glory."
(Chapter 64, Verses 1 and following.) Oh, that you would tear open the heavens and come down, so that the mountains would quake before you! As when fire kindles brushwood and the fire causes water to boil, to make your name known to your adversaries, so that the nations might tremble at your presence! When you did awesome deeds that we did not expect, you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence. Chapter 70: If you open the heavens, trembling will seize the mountains from you, and they will melt like wax before fire, and the fire will consume your adversaries, and your name will be made known among your adversaries, and the nations will tremble at your presence. When you have done glorious things, the mountains will tremble because of you. For our enemies have trampled your sanctuary, and we have become like those in the beginning, when your name was not invoked upon us. Therefore, we implore and say: Oh, that you would tear open the heavens and come down; that you, who are always promised, would finally fulfill your promises. But this was said at that time when the Saviour had not yet come, nor had he taken upon himself a human nature and substance from a virgin's womb in order to save humanity: so that as we have borne the image of the earthy, we may bear the image of the heavenly (1 Corinthians 15). But if you were to do it, they say, and the heavens were to open up, or even the heavens, at the coming of your majesty, would flow down, or if trembling were to seize the mountains, and they were to be consumed, as wax is consumed by fire. And the heavens were opened before Ezekiel, and he saw a great vision (Ezek. I). But even Moses, in the blessings of Deuteronomy, implores: May the Lord open his good treasury, the heavens, to give you blessing (Deut. XXVIII). And in the Gospel (Matt. III), it is said (or it is testified) that John the Baptist saw the heavens opened, and the Holy Spirit descending upon the Lord in the form of a dove. But the mountains, which at the coming of the Lord, of whom it is written: God is a consuming fire (Deut. IV, 24), will be consumed like wax and melt, are the opposing powers, and all those who rise up against the knowledge of God. Concerning them, it is also sung in the ninety-sixth psalm: The earth saw and trembled. The mountains melted like wax before the Lord, before the Lord of all the earth (Psalm 96:4, 5). For…
Dictionary and topics
Mountain · Melted — Melted
Mountains · God: Causes, to melt — God: Causes, to melt
Volcanoes · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
As fire burns something that melts because of it, and as fire causes water to bubble; when you put a coal or glowing metal into water, the water bubbles. All this You did in Egypt, as it is written (Ex. 9: 24): “And there was hail, and fire burning in the midst of the hail.” Jonathan, however, renders: “As fire burned materials that melt,” in reference to Elijah on Mount Carmel, concerning whom it is stated (I Kings 18:38): “and the water which was in the trench, it licked up.”
to make Your name known to Your adversaries like the matter that is stated concerning that plague (Ex. 9:16): “But, because of this I preserved You, [in order to show you My strength, and in order to tell of My name…