Where Are Your Zeal and Your Might?: As the chiasm in chapters 56–66 treads its return path, the vision of the battling warrior (63:1–6) paired with the one in 59:15b–20. This prayer, then, pairs with the prayer in 59:9–15a. As the new vision was bloodier, the new prayer is much longer and more urgent. It has the features of a lament on the part of the community such as those that appear in the Psalms and in Lamentations, but like some of them (and like chapter 62) it unfolds as more of a stream of consciousness and closes with a question. It does suggest an alternating between confrontation (63:7–14, 17–19; 64:5–7) and plea (63:15–16; 64:1–4, 8–12), but elements of confession, questioning, prayer, appeal, and accusation interweave and repeat without forming a consistent pattern.

While the …