1
At this present time, what is left thee but to muster thy roving bands, daughter of an outlaw king? Hard siege presses us now; smitten on the cheek, now, is the ruler of Israel.✻
2
Bethlehem-Ephrata! Least do they reckon thee among all the clans of Juda? Nay, it is from thee I look to find a prince that shall rule over Israel. Whence comes he? From the first beginning, from ages untold!✻
3
4
Enabled by the Lord his God, confident in that mighty protection, stands he, our shepherd, and safely folds his flock; fame of him now reaches to the world’s end;
5
who else should be its hope of recovery? What though the Assyrian invade our country, trample down our strongholds? Seven leaders of men we shall find to marshal us, and an eighth yet in reserve;
6
sword in hand, they shall herd the men of Assyria, naked steel for the land of Nemrod! Invade they, trample they as they will, he shall be our deliverance.
7
Poor remnant of Jacob, lost among that multitude of peoples! Yet thrive it shall; does not the grass thrive, with dew and shower from the Lord to water it, nor looks for man’s tending, unbeholden to our human toil?
8
Poor remnant of Jacob, among those heathen multitudes lost! Yet lion amid the forest herds, lion’s whelp amid flock of sheep, finds not easier passage, brings not down more inexorably his prey.
9
High triumph thou shalt have over thy enemies; perish all that bear thee ill-will!
10
All other help, the Lord says, shall then be denied thee; gone, horse and chariot of thine,
11
the cities lost, ruined the strongholds. Sorcery thou shalt have none to trust in, nor divinings;
12
gone idol and sacred pillar of thine, nor any of thy own imaginings left thee;
13
uprooted the woods of thy false worship, fallen the cities.
14
Only then shall my fierce anger find its scope, only then fall my vengeance upon the nations that defied me.
