The first line of the fourth verse has a subject-verb disagreement. There's a compound subject ("die Sünd und Tod" - sin and death) but a singular verb ("kann" - can). It should be können.
I'm not too confident in my translation of the last line of the fifth verse ("dem sei Trotz, ders nicht lassen kann," which I translated as "Despite this, He cannot leave it").
As far as I can tell, this hymn isn't present in The Lutheran Hymnal, Lutheran Worship, or The Lutheran Service Book. In the Gesangbuch, there's a note that the text is sung to "the previous melody," which was "Vom Himmel hoch." Here's the TLH arrangement:
Are worth nothing before You, nothing helps nor acts.
Oh, my dear Jesus,
Make for Yourself a clean, soft little bed
To rest in the shrine of my heart
So that I never forget Yours.
About this may I always be happy
To jump, sing always freely
The right Susaninne even
With gusto the sweet tone.
Praise, honor be to God on the highest throne,
Who gives to us His only Son,
Therefore the host of angels rejoices
And sings of such a new year to us.
Dr. M. Luther, 1535.
I'm not too confident in my translation of "Bis willekomm" as "By way of welcome," but it's the best I could come up with.
"Dry grass / Of which a child and donkey ate" doesn't make much sense, but I couldn't find a translation for "Kind" other than "child." Unless this means the donkey's child, but I think that would be a different word.
I'm not very confident in my translation of "das rechte Susaninne schon / mit Herzenslust den süßen Ton" as "The right Susaninne even / With gusto the sweet tone." I don't know what Susaninne is (and an internet search didn't reveal anything helpful), and I couldn't find a good translation of "Herzenslust."
This hymn appears as "From Heaven Above to Earth I Come" in The Lutheran Hymnal (#85), Lutheran Worship (#37 and extending into #38 "Welcome to Earth, O Noble Guest"), and The Lutheran Service Book (#358). In all of these and as the Gesangbuch notes, the text is sung to "its own melody." Here's the TLH arrangement:
In the eighth verse, there's an implied subject in the line "des Herrschaft gehet überall." I'm not sure what this subject is though, so my translation ("Of power it goes all over") doesn't make much sense.
I'm not too confident in my translation of "so bald" as "even," but it's the best sense I could make of that construction.
The title "Alpha and Omega" in the eleventh verse comes from Revelation 21:6, 22:13.
The title "snake treader" ("Schlangentreter") in the fourteenth verse refers to Genesis 3:15.
Most of the text of the last verse ("To God in the highest be honor...") is taken from Luke 2:14.
As far as I can tell, this hymn doesn't appear in The Lutheran Hymnal, Lutheran Worship, or The Lutheran Service Book. In the Gesangbuch, there's a note that the text is sung to "Vom Himmel hoch da k." Here's the TLH arrangement:
gibt sich zum Dienst, und wird ein Knecht der Sünder.
Du Gottes Sohn,
wirst Erd und Thon,
gering und schwach, wie wir und unsre Kinder.
Du höchstes Gut
hebst unser Blut
in deinen Thron, hoch über alle Höhen.
Du ewge Kraft
machst Brüderschaft
mit uns, die wie ein Dampf und Rauch vergehen.
Was will uns nun
zuwider thun
der Seelenfeind mit allem Gift und Gallen?
Was wirst er mir
und andern für,
daß Adam ist und wir mit ihm gefallen?
Schweig, arger Feind,
da sitzt mein Freund,
mein Fleisch und Blut, hoch in dem Himmel droben.
Was du gefällt,
das hat der Held
aus Jakobs Stamm zu großer Ehr erhoben.
Sein Licht und Heil
macht alles heil;
der Himmelsschatz brint allen Schaden wieder.
Der Freudenquell,
Immanuel,
schlägt Teufel, Höll und all ihr Reich darnieder.
Drum, frommer Christ,
wer du auch bist,
sei gutes Muthsund laß dich nicht betrüben,
weil Gottes Kind
dich ihm verbindt,
so kanns nicht anders sein, Gott muß dich lieben.
Gedenkte doch,
wie herrlich hoch
er über allen Jammer dich geführet;
der Engel Heer
ist selbst nicht mehr,
als eben du, mit Seligkeit gezieret.
Du siehest ja
vor Augen da
dein Fleisch und blut die Luft und Wolken lenken;
was will doch sich
(ich frage dich)
erheben, dich in Angst und Noth zu senken.
Dein blöder Sinn,
geht oft dahin,
ruft ach und weh! läßt allen Trost verschwinden:
komm her und richt
dein Angesicht
zum Kripplein Christi, da, da wirst dus finden.
Wirst du geplagt?
Sei unverzagt,
dein Bruder wird dein Unglück nicht verschmähen;
sein Herz ist weich
und gnadenreich,
kann unser Leid nicht ohne Thränen sehen.
Tritt zu ihm zu,
such Hilf und Ruh,
er wirds so machen, daß du ihm wirst danken;
er weiß und kennt,
was beißt und brennt,
versteht wohl, wie zu Muthe sei dem Kranken.
Denn eben drum
hat er den Grimm
des Kreuzes auch am Liebe wollen tragen,
daß seine Pein
ihm möge sein
ein unverrückt Erinnrung unsrer Plagen.
Mit einem Wort: er ist die Pfort
zu dieses und des andern Lebens Freuden;
er macht behend
ein seligs End
an alle dem, was fromme Herzen leiden.
Laß aller Welt
ihr Gut und Geld,
und siehe nur, daß dieser Schatz dein bleibe;
wer den hie fest
hält und nicht läßt,
den ehrt und krönt er dort an Seel und Leibe.
Paul Gerhardt, 1656.
My prose translation:
O Jesus Christ,
Your manger is
My paradise, where my soul revels,
Here is the place,
Here lies the Word
Personally clothed with our flesh.
He to Whom sea and wind
Are obedient,
Gives Himself for service and becomes a slave for sinners.
You Son of God,
Become dust and clay,
Poor and weak, like we and our children.
You highest Good
Lift our blood
On Your throne, high above all heights.
You eternal Might
Make brotherhood
With us, who pass away like a vapor and smoke.
What now
Against us
Does the enemy of the soul want to do with all poison and venom?
What will he to me
And to others [do]
That Adam is fallen and we with him?
Be silent, wicked enemy,
There sits my Friend,
My flesh and blood, high in Heaven above.
What you dropt,
The Champion
Of Jacob's line raised to great honor.
His light and salvation
Heal everything;
The Treasure of Heaven restores all damage.
The spring of joy,
Immanuel,
Strikes down the devil, hell, and all their kingdom.
Therefore, gentle Christ,
Who You also are,
May good courage let You not be saddened,
Because God's child
Binds You to him,
so otherwise can it not be, God must love You.
Yet think
How wonderfully high
He has led you over all misery;
The angel army
Itself is no more
Than even you, adorned with salvation.
You see indeed
Before [your] eyes there
Your flesh and blood that governs the air and clouds;
What wants itself
(I ask you)
To raise up, you to lower in fear and distress.
Your stupid sense
Often goes there,
Cris oh and woe! Lets all comfort disappear;
Come here and turn
Your face
To the manger of Christ, there, there will you find it.
Will you be plagued?
Be undaunted,
Your Brother will not disdain your distress;
His heart is soft
And full of mercy,
Not without tears can He see our suffering.
Walk up to Him,
Look for help and rest,
He will make it so, so that you will thank Him;
He knows and recognizes
What bites and burns,
Understands well how to be courage for the sick [one].
Even therefore
Has He the wrath
Of the cross wanted to carry even in love,
So that His pain
May be for Him
An unshakeable recollection of our plagues.
With a word:
He is the door
To joy of this and of the other life;
Agilely He makes
A blessed end
To all that which pious hearts suffer from.
Leave to all the world
Its goods and money
And see only that this treasure yours remains;
Who it here tightly
Holds and does not leave [it],
Him [will] He there honor and crown in soul and body.
Paul Gerhardt, 1656.
The end of the third verse ("die wie ein Dampf und Rauch vergehen" "who pass away like a vapor and smoke") may come from part of James 4:14: "For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes."
This hymn appears (in abbreviated form) as "O Jesus Christ, Thy Manger Is" in The Lutheran Hymnal (#81) and in The Lutheran Service Book (#372). The Gesangbuch notes that the text is sung to "its own melody," which The Lutheran Hymnal follows, but in The Lutheran Service Book, the text is paired with the tune "In paradisum." Here's the TLH arrangement of "O Jesu Christ, dein Kripplein":