"Rett, o Herr Jesu, rett" (#176)

German text in the Gesangbuch:

1 Rett, o Herr Jesu, rett dein Ehr,

das Seufzen deiner Kirche hör,

der Feind Anschläg und Macht zerstör,

die jetzt verfolgen deine Lehr.

2 Groß ist ihr List, ihr Trutz und Macht,

sie fahren hoch daher mit Pracht,

all unser Hoffnung wird verlacht,

wie sind bei ihn'n wie nichts geacht.

3 Vergib uns unsre Missethat,

vertilg uns nicht, erzeige Gnad.

Beweis den Feinden in der That,

es gelte wider dich kein Rath.

4 Steh deinem kleinen Häuflein bei,

aus Gnaden Fried und Ruh verleih;

laß jedermann erkennen frei,

daß hier die rechte Kirche sei.

5 Laß sehn, daß du seist unser Gott,

der unser Feinde setzt zu Spott,

wirst ihre Hoffart in den Koth

und hilft den Seinen aus der Noth.

Johann Heermann, 1630.

My prose translation:

1 Save, O Lord Jesus, save Your honor;

Hear the sighing of Your church;

Destroy the attacks and might of the enemy,

Which now persecute Your doctrine.

2 Great are their cunning, their defiance and might;

They go high from here with splendor;

All of our hope is laughed at;

With them, we are considered as nothing.

3 Forgive us our misdeeds;

Do not destroy us; show mercy.

Prove to the enemy in the act

That no counsel is effective against You.

4 Stand with Your little flock;

Out of mercy, grant peace and quiet;

Let everyone recognize freely

That here is the true church.

5 Let it be seen that You are our God,

Who puts our enemies to shame,

Will [cast] their pride in the muck,

And helps His [own] out of distress.

Johann Heermann, 1630.

In the line "Groß ist ihr List, ihr Trutz und Macht" in the second verse, there's a plural subject ("ihr List, ihr Trutz und Macht" "their cunning, their defiance and might") but a singular verb ("ist" "is").  I changed it to a plural verb ("are") in my translation.

"Häuflein" in the fourth verse is literally something like "little crowd."  This didn't seem to fit the context very well, so I translated it as "flock" and omitted the diminutive since it's already modified by "kleinen."

I don't know why "sei" in the last line of the fourth verse and "seist" in the first line of the fifth are subjective; I translated both as indicatives ("is" and "are," respectively).

I had to supply a complementary infinitive in the third line of the fifth verse.  The original text is just "Will their pride in the muck."

This hymn appears as "Thine Honor Save, O Christ, Our Lord" in The Lutheran Hymnal (#265), albeit with verses four and five flipped.  As far as I can tell, it's not in Lutheran Worship or The Lutheran Service Book.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that in the TLH version, translated by Matthias Loy, "deinem kleinen Häuflein" is rendered as "Thy little flock," which is essentially how I did it, too.

In TLH, and as the Gesangbuch notes, the text is sung to the tune "Erhalt uns, Herr, bei d[einem Wort]."  Here's the TLH arrangement (transposed from E minor to G minor):

And here's an arrangement from Telemann's Fast allgemeines Evangelisch-Musicalisches Lieder-Buch: