Field Stone Cottage Blog

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Sunday's Hymn: O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

O come, O come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here,
Until the Son of God appear.

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, O come, thou Lord of might,
Who to thy tribes, on Sinai's height,
In ancient times didst give the law
In cloud and majesty and awe.

O come, thou Rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan's tyranny;
From depths of hell thy people save,
And give them victory o'er the grave.

O come, thou Dayspring from on high
And cheer us by thy drawing nigh;
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
And death's dark shadows put to flight.

O come, thou Key of David, come
And open wide our heav'nly home;
Make safe the way that leads on high,
And close the path to misery.

Combined from various Latin antiphons, probably in the 12th Century
Translated from Latin to English by John Mason Neale, 1851

Tune: Veni Emmanuel, an ancient plain song, 13th Century
Adapted by Thomas Helmore, 1856

2 comments:

Willow said...

The translation from Latin explains the lonnng drawn out not on 'come' at the end of the first line of some verses. I do love this hymn and now I'll be humming the tune all day, smiling!

Willow said...

I should have written 'lonnng drawn out NOTE'