Advent
Comfort, Comfort Ye My People
- Words:
- Johann Olearius (Oelschlaeger), 1671. Translated by Catherine Winkworth, 1862.
- Music:
- 'Freu dich sehr, o meine Seele' from Trente Quatre Pseaumes de David, Geneva, 1551.
- Setting:
- "Evangelical Lutheran Hymn-Book", 1931.
- Metre:
- 8 7 8 7 7 7 8 8
- 1Comfort, comfort ye My people,Speak ye peace, thus saith our God;Comfort those who sit in darkness,Mourning 'neath their sorrow's load;Speak ye to JerusalemOf the peace that waits for them;Tell her that her sins I cover,And her warfare now is over.
- 2For the herald's voice is cryingIn the desert far and near,Bidding all men to repentance,Since the kingdom now is here.O that warning cry obey!Now prepare for God a way!Let the valleys rise to meet Him,And the hills bow down to greet Him.
- 3Yea, her sins our God will pardon,Blotting out each dark misdeed;All that well deserved His angerHe will no more see nor heed.She has suffered many a day,Now her griefs have passed away,God will change her pining sadnessInto ever springing gladness.
- 4Make ye straight what long was crooked,Make the rougher places plain:Let your hearts be true and humble,As befits His holy reign,For the glory of the LordO'er the earth is shed abroad,And all flesh shall see the tokenThat His Word is never broken.
More sheet music
Scripture
Topics
In the hymnals
- The words are in 137 hymnals indexed by Hymnary.org. Their history →
Words, music and setting are in the public domain. The score is from the Open Hymnal Project (Brian J. Dumont), which places its own work in the public domain. Further sheet music is from PDHymns.com. The piano is the FluidR3 General MIDI sound font (MIT licence). How many hymnals print a hymn, and when it was written, is from Hymnary.org.