Isaiah 64:5

"Thou meetest him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness, those that remember thee in thy ways: behold, thou wast wroth, and we sinned, in them have we been of long time; and shall we be saved? For we are all become as one that is unclean, and all our righteousnesses are as a polluted garment: and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, take 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 by means of our iniquities."

Isaiah 64:5 in the very oldest manuscripts of the Hebrew text is damaged to the point of its being impossible to know exactly what is meant by it. There is little or no reason to trust the emendations that have produced the various statements printed here in recent versions as the last half of the verse.[8] The first part of the verse is clear enough. God will accept and bless those who work righteousness.

"All our righteousnesses are as a polluted garment ..." (Isaiah 64:6). This is inferior to the KJV which has, "All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags." "The word rendered `garment' or `rags' here has the literal meaning of "vestis menstruis polluta", that is, a soiled cloth of the type used by women in their monthly periods."[9] The reference could not be to "garments," but to "rags."

"There is none that calleth upon thy name ..." (Isaiah 64:7). "This is hyperbole, emphasizing the general apathy that had come over all the people."[10]