Good Thursday
Over Kidron Jesus Treadeth
- Words:
- Thomas Hansen Kingo, 1689. Translated by J. Jeffrey, before 1866.
- Music:
- 'Over Kedron Jesus Traeder' Ludvig Mathias Lindeman.
- Setting:
- "The Lutheran Hymnary", 1913.
- Metre:
- 8 7 8 7 7 7 8 8
- 1Over Kidron Jesus treadethTo His passion for us all;Every human eye be weeping,Tears of bitter grief let fall!Round His Spirit flock the foes,Place their shafts and bend their bows,Aiming at the Savior solely,While the world forsakes Him wholly.
- 2David once, with heart afflicted,Crossed the Kidron's narrow strand,Clouds of gloom and grief about himWhen an exile from his land.But, O Jesus, blacker nowBends the cloud above Thy brow,Hasting to death's dreary portalsFor the shame and sin of mortals.
- 3See how, anguish struck, He fallethProstrate, and with struggling breath,Three times on His God He calleth,Praying that the bitter deathAnd the cup of doom may go,Still He cries, in all His woe:"Not My will, but Thine, O Father!"And the angels round Him gather.
- 4See how, in that hour of darkness,Battling with the evil pow'r,Agonies untold assail Him,On His soul the arrows show'r;All the garden flow'rs are wetWith the drops of bloody sweat,From His anguished frame distilling‐World's redemption thus fulfilling!
- 5But, O flow'rs, so sadly wateredBy this pure and precious dew,In some blessed hour your blossoms'Neath the olive shadows grew!Eden's garden did not bearAught that can with you compare,For the blood, thus freely given,Makes my soul the heir of heaven.
- 6When as flow'rs themselves I wither, When I droop and fade like grass,When the life-streams through my pulses Dull and ever duller pass,When at last they cease to roll, Then, to cheer my sinking soul,Grace of Jesus, be Thou given- Source of triumph! pledge of heaven!
Scripture
Topics
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. 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.