Isaiah 64:9 - Exposition

Be not wroth very sore. At the time of the Captivity God was wroth very sore ( Lamentations 5:22 ). His auger was hot against the sheep of his pasture ( Psalms 74:1 ). But they had suffered, they had been afflicted many years. Might he not now relent, and remit somewhat from his fierce anger? Neither remember iniquity (comp. Psalms 79:8 ). God had already made a promise by the mouth of Isaiah, "I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy trangressions, and will not remember thy sins " ( Isaiah 43:25 ). The captives lay hold, as it were, on this promise, and entreat that their "iniquity" may be not only forgiven, but forgotten ( Jeremiah 31:34 ). We are all thy people. A fresh argument. "We are thy children," individually (verse 8); "we are thy work, thy creatures" (verse 8), again individually; but also, "we are all of us ( kullanu ), collectively, thy people"—the people whom thou hast chosen to thyself, and over whom thou hast watched for so many centuries. Surely this consideration, if no other, will induce thee to forego thy wrath and forgive our iniquity.