Canticle of Zechariah (Luke 1:68-79)

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Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, For He hath visited and redeemed His people (Chant)

Representative Text

Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel,
who has come to his people and set them free.
The Lord has raised up for us a mighty Savior,
born of the house of his servant David.
Through the holy prophets God promised of old to
save us from our enemies,
from the hands of all who hate us,
to show mercy to our forbears,
and to remember his holy covenant.
This was the oath God swore to our father Abraham:
to set us free from the hands of our enemies,
free to worship him without fear,
holy and righteous before him, all the days of our life.
In the tender compassion of our God
the dawn from on high shall break up on us,
to shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death,
and to guide our feet into the way of peace.

(Gloria Patri may be added)
Glory to the Father and to the Son,
and to the Holy Spirit;
as it was in the beginning, is now,
and will be forever. Amen.

Source: Moravian Book of Worship #231a

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Related Texts

First Line:	Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, For He hath visited and redeemed His people (Chant)
Title:	Canticle of Zechariah (Luke 1:68-79)
Original Language:	Latin
Language:	English
Copyright:	Public Domain

Luke 1
(hymns)

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Notes

Benedictus. Translations into English of this Song of Zacharias (St. Luke i., 68-79) are given in the various versions of the Holy Scripture, those best known being the Prayer Book version in the Morning Prayer, the A. V. 1611, and the Revised Version of 1881. In addition there are metrical renderings in the form of hymns in the Old Version of Sternhold and Hopkins; the New Version of Tate and Brady, and the following:—
(1) Drayton's Harmony of the Church, 1591; (2) G. Wither's Hymns and Songs of the Church, 1623-31; (3) G. Sandys's Paraphrases on the Psalms, 1636; (4) Simon Ford's Psalms of David, 1688; (5) Bishop Patrick's Psalms of David in Metre, 2nd edition, 1695. [William T. Brooke]

-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

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