Sunday, January 16, 2022

"Freut euch, ihr Menschenk." (#19)

German text in the Gesangbuch:
Freut euch, ihr Menschenkinder all,
Gott kömmt zu euch vom Himmelssal,
er wird geborn ein Kindlein klein
von Maria, der Jungfrau rein.

Er ist der Zweig aus Jesse Stamm,
der Löw Judä und Weibessam,
Jesus, der Heiden Trost und Licht
und der der Schlang den Kopf zerbricht.

Er bringt mit sich Fried, Wonn, und Freud,
vertreibt alls Leid und Traurigkeit,
damit der Mensch geplaget war
durch Adams Fall stets immerdar.

Durch sein Geburt, Angst, Blut, und Tod
errett uns all der wahre Gott;
er macht uns auch den Engeln gleich
und Erben in seins Vaters Reich.

Cornelius Freund, + 1591.
My prose translation:
Rejoice, all you children of men,
God comes to you from the hall of Heaven,
He is born a little child
Of Mary, the virgin pure.

He is the shoot from Jesse's stump,
The lion of Judah and woman's seed,
Jesus, the Savior of comfort and light
And He Who crushed the head of the snake.

He brings with Himself peace, delight, and joy
Expels all sorrow and sadness,
With which man was constantly plagued
Through Adam's fall.

Through His birth, dread, blood, and death
The true God saves us all;
He makes us even like the angels
And heirs in His Father's kingdom.
In the second verse, there are allusions to Isaiah 11:1 (which informed my translation more than the hymn text itself), Revelation 5:5, and Genesis 3:15.  I'm not entirely sure of my translation of "Weibessam."  I think it's a combination of "Weib" and "Samen."

In order to make the sense more obvious, I had to move "stets immerdar" (which I translated as "constantly") up a line:  "With which man was constantly plagued."

"Heirs in His Father's kingdom" seems to refer to Galatians 4:7:  "So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God."

As far as I can tell, the hymn does not appear in The Lutheran Hymnal, Lutheran Worship, or The Lutheran Service Book.  There's a note above the text in the Gesangbuch that it's sung to the tune "Vom Himmel hoch, da k."  Here's an arrangement from The Lutheran Hymnal: