This is the first hymn in a new section: "Lieder am Fest Johannis des Täufers (Am 24. Juni.)" "Songs on the Feast of John the Baptist (on 24 June)"
German text in the Gesangbuch:
1 Es war die ganze Welt
von Mosis Fluch erschrecket,
bis St. Johannes hat
den Finger ausgestrecket
auf Jesum, welchen er
zum Heiland aller Welt
als sein Vorläufer hat
gezeigt und vorgestellt.
2 Vor dem er ungeborn
mit Freuden aufgesprungen,
zu dem er sich bekannt
mit unberedter Zungen
in seiner Mutter Leib
und mit Elias Geist
bei Groß und Kleinen ihn
gepredigt und geweist:
3 Sieh, das ist Gottes Lamm,
das unsre Sünde träget,
das sich der ganzen Welt
zum Opfer niederleget;
sieh, das ist Gottes Lamm,
bei dem man aller Sünd
Vergebung, Friede, Ruh
und alle Gnade findt.
4 Wohl dem, der dieses Lamm,
das uns Johannes weiset,
im Glauben fest ergrieft
und in dem Leben preiset.
Wer dieser Tauf gedenkt
und wahre Buße übt,
der wird von ihm auch sein
begnadet und geliebt.
5 So gib, du großer Gott,
daß wir Johannis Lehre
von Herzen nehmen an,
daß sich in uns bekehre,
was bös und sündlich ist,
bis wir nach dieser Zeit
mit Freuden gehen ein
zu deiner Herrlichkeit.
Dr. Joh. Gottfr. Olearius, +1711.
My prose translation:
1 The whole world was
Frightened by Moses' curse
Until St. John
Stretched out his finger
To Jesus, Whom he,
As his forerunner,
Showed and prefigured
As Savior of the world.
2 Before Him, he, unborn,
Leapt with joy;
He professed Him
With unspeaking tongue
In the womb of his mother
And with Elijah's spirit
To great and small
Preached and pointed to Him:
3 Look, that is God's Lamb,
Who bears our sin,
Who lies down as the sacrifice
For the whole world;
Look, that is God's Lamb,
With Whom one finds
Forgiveness of all sin,
Peace, rest, and all mercy.
4 Well is he who in faith
Firmly grasps this Lamb,
To Whom John points for us,
And praises in his life.
He who has thought of this baptism
And practices true repentance
Will by Him also be
Blessed and loved.
5 So grant, You great God,
That we take John's teaching
To heart
So that in us, it converts
What is evil and sinful
Until we, after this time
With joy, enter
Your splendor.
Dr. Joh. Gottfr. Olearius, +1711.
I shuffled some lines near the ends of the first and third verses and the beginning of the fourth verse to get smoother English translations.
The first part of the second verse summarizes the events in Luke 1:39-45. "Bei Groß und Kleinen" ("To great and small") is a merism.
The first two lines of the third verse ("Sieh, das ist Gottes Lamm, / das unsre Sünde träget" "Look, that is God's Lamb, / Who bears our sin") come nearly verbatim from part of John 1:29: "Siehe, das ist Gottes Lamm, das der Welt Sünde trägt!" "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" I translated them a bit less formally.
This hymn appears as "When All the World Was Cursed" in The Lutheran Hymnal (#272), Lutheran Worship (#187), and The Lutheran Service Book (#346), although the LSB version omits the fourth verse. In all of these, and as the Gesangbuch notes, the text is sung to the tune "Was frag' ich nach der Welt." Here's the TLH arrangement:
I don't know why the clauses "daß er alleine König sei" in the first verse and "daß du alleine König seist" in the eight have subjective verbs ("that He alone would be King," "that You alone would be King"), unless it's just to set up the rhymes with "treu" and "Geist." In my translation, I rendered them as a regular indicatives ("that He alone is King," "that You alone are King").
I think it's interesting that in the line "Ein Wesen, drei Personen" at the end of the first and eighth verses, "Ein" is capitalized to mark it as the numeral (one) rather than the indefinite article (a).
I couldn't find a translation for "eräuget" in the third verse. I translated it as "made visible" based partly on the word's resemblance to Augen (eye) and partly on the context, which seems to draw from Galatians 4:4: "But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law."
Usually, I would translate "wendet" as "turns," but that didn't quite fit the context here (in verse 6). Instead, I translated it as "assigns" ("And assigns His glory to creatures!").
I couldn't find a translation for "dermaleins" in the eighth verse. I translated it as "once" (the conjunction, not the adverb) based more on the context and to some degree on the word's constituent parts, too.
As far as I can tell, this hymn isn't in The Lutheran Hymnal, Lutheran Worship, or The Lutheran Service Book. According to the Gesangbuch, the text is sung to the tune "Christ, unser Herr, zum J[ordan kam]." Here's an arrangement from Telemann's Fast allgemeines Evangelisch-Musicalisches Lieder-Buch:
That You are true God and are called: God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
Threefold and yet united.
3 O Father, source and origin
Of all things, be praised
For all wonders clear and bright,
Established by Your might;
You, Father, before all time
Have from eternity
Begotten the only Son, Your image.
4 You have made the earth
According to Your pleasure
[And] us people on it, for Your praise,
So that we ring out Your praise;
Also by the word of Your mouth
[You] maintain and govern
All this forever.
5 Therefore stand, O Father, with
Us, Your poor children,
And forgive us all guilt
As repentant sinners;
Out of our manifold distress
Save us and help us soon,
As You have promised us.
6 O Jesus Christ, Son of God,
From eternity begotten,
Also chosen as the Mediator
On Heaven's throne for us men,
Through You was made all that was made,
O true God, O true Light
From true God and Light!
7 You are the image of the Father
And [are] come from Heaven;
Just when the time was fulfilled,
You have taken on flesh,
Have acquired God's grace for us,
[And] paid for our sin and guilt
By Your innocent suffering.
8 Now You sit at the right hand
Of the Father, lifted up high;
[You] govern all people and lands
And subdue the raving of the foes.
Help us, O true Man and God,
We want to thank You
For Your death and all [Your] good deeds.
9 O Holy Ghost, You worthy Crown,
Enlighten our minds,
You Who from the Father and the Son
Proceed without beginning;
You are omnipotent and without end;
The Father and the Son send You
To lead us in the faith.
10 Lord, You have borne us
Again anew through baptism;
Afterwards You also take us up
When You give true repentance;
Through You, our hope becomes firm,
And when all the world leaves us,
You remain with us in [our] hearts.
11 We humbly ask You
That that which we often bring before You
Through sighs in our distresses
May indeed be passed through;
And when the last hour is there,
So help, that we die confidently and blessedly
In Jesus Christ.
12 God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
For all mercy and goodness
Be always praised by us
With a cheerful heart:
The host of Heaven sounds your praise
And sings, "Holy! Holy! Holy!"
We do that also on earth.
Dr. Justus Gesenius, +1671.
I had to shuffle some elements within the many of the verses to get smoother English translations.
"Erdenkreis" in the fourth verse is something like "circle of the earth," but I translated it simply as "earth."
"Ferner" in the fifth verse seems to be present merely to add some syllables to that line, so I left it out of my translation. It means "moreover," and this seemed unnecessary since "therefore" is already in the line. Initially, I got confused because it's similar to fern, which means distant (or further as a comparative adjective or adverb), but "stand further with us" doesn't make any sense.
I couldn't find a translation for "geschicht" in the sixth verse. I ended up translating the whole line ("durch dich geschicht, was nur geschicht") as "Through You was made all that was made" based more on its resemblance to John 1:3 ("All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made."), although there's no resemblance here with the text of my German New Testament.
A line in the seventh verse ("als eben war die Zeit erfüllt" "Just when the time was fulfilled") seems to be drawn from part of Galatians 4:4: "Als aber die Zeit erfüllt war..." "But when the fullness of time had come...."
I translated "ausgehest" in the ninth verse as "proceed," based more on the Nicene Creed's "who proceeds from the Father and the Son" than from any suggestions my dictionary provided.
The "Holy! Holy! Holy!" in the twelfth verse comes from either Isaiah 6:3 or Revelation 4:8.
As far as I can tell, this hymn isn't in The Lutheran Hymnal, Lutheran Worship, or The Lutheran Service Book. According to the Gesangbuch, the text is sung to the tune "Nun freut euch, lieben Chr[isten g'mein]." Here's the TLH arrangement:
And here's an arrangement from Telemann's Fast allgemeines Evangelisch-Musicalisches Lieder-Buch:
"Früh und spat" ("early and late") in the first verse is a temporal merism. Spät is purposely altered so that it rhymes with "hat" in a later line.
I'm not confident in my translation of "dem billig" as "fairly." Usually, I would translate "billig" as cheap, but that certainly doesn't fit the context here. My dictionary suggests "just" and "fair," but I think those are more in a commercial sense of trade or bartering. The preceding "dem" indicates that it's in the dative case, which I can't make any sense out of.
I had to shuffle some lines in the fourth verse to get a smoother English translation. The image of the vine is similar to that in John 15:5.
As far as I can tell, this hymn isn't in The Lutheran Hymnal, Lutheran Worship, or The Lutheran Service Book. According to the Gesangbuch, the text is sung to the tune "Helft mir Gotts Güte pr[eisen]." Here's the TLH arrangement: