Isaiah 64 Bible study: We are the clay

Chapter 64 opens in the middle of a prayer. The words before it are, "We have become like those over whom you never ruled, like those who were not called by your name" (Isaiah 63:19), and the chapter goes on, "Oh that you would tear the heavens, that you would come down, that the mountains might quake at your presence" (64:1) (tap tear, quake). In the Hebrew Bible the two belong to one verse: the WEB's 64:1 is the end of Hebrew 63:19, and the chapter's other verses are numbered one lower in Hebrew. The prayer has already called the LORD Father: "For you are our Father … You, LORD, are our Father" (Isaiah 63:16), and the chapter on Isaiah 63 studies our Father, avinu, which Isaiah has only there and in 64:8. All through chapter 64 the prayer speaks to the LORD as you.

Isaiah 64:4→leads to1 Corinthians 2:8-9

The prayer says, "For from of old men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, nor has the eye seen a God besides you, who works for him who waits for him" (Isaiah 64:4). Paul (1 Corinthians 1:1) writes, "For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified" (1 Corinthians 2:2). He speaks of "God’s wisdom in a mystery, the wisdom that has been hidden" (1 Corinthians 2:7), "which none of the rulers of this world has known. For had they known it, they wouldn’t have crucified the Lord of glory" (1 Corinthians 2:8). "But as it is written, “Things which an eye didn’t see, and an ear didn’t hear, which didn’t enter into the heart of man, these God has prepared for those who love him.”" (1 Corinthians 2:9), and "But to us, God revealed them through the Spirit" (1 Corinthians 2:10). Paul gives the words as Scripture but doesn't name Isaiah or any book, and the WEB words the two far apart. Both speak of what no ear has heard and no eye has seen, but in 64:4 no eye has seen a God besides you, "who works for him who waits for him", while in Paul no eye saw the things "God has prepared for those who love him". So setting 64:4 beside Jesus is a reading. Some hear 64:4 in Paul's "as it is written": what God does for those who wait for him, unseen and unheard of old, is what he has prepared for those who love him, revealed through the Spirit in the wisdom the rulers didn't know when they crucified the Lord of glory. Others read Paul's words as Scripture he doesn't name, sharing only some of 64:4's words, and read 64:4 in its own prayer, beside the awesome things the praying people remember (Isaiah 64:3). These notes pick neither.

קָרַעqara'say ka-RA

Brown-Driver-Briggs: "tear", and among its senses, "rend open heavens, and descend". Strong's: "to rend". "Oh that you would tear the heavens, that you would come down" (64:1). Isaiah has the verb three times. The other two are torn clothes: the king's men "came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn" (Isaiah 36:22), and "When King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes" (Isaiah 37:1). Here the prayer asks the LORD to tear the heavens.