For Advent

Words: Veni, Veni, Emanuel, from D. G. Corner's Gesangbuch, 1625,
Translated by Rev. John Mason Neale

Compare: O Come, O Come, Emmanuel - Version 1 (with notes)
O Come, O Come, Emmanuel - Version 2
Come, O Immanuel, Come

Source: John Mason Neale, ed., Medieval Hymns and Sequences, Third Edition. London: Joseph, 1867, pp. 171-2.

1. Draw nigh, draw nigh, Emmanuel
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lowly exile here,
Until the Son of God appear;
Rejoice! rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall be born for thee, O Israel!

2. Draw nigh, O Jesse’s Rod, draw nigh,
To free us from the enemy;
From Hell’s infernal pit to save,
And give us victory o’er the grave.
Rejoice! rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall be born for thee, O Israel!

3. Draw nigh, Thou Orient, Who shalt cheer
And comfort by Thine Advent here,
And banish far the brooding gloom
Of sinful night and endless doom.
Rejoice! rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall be born for thee, O Israel!

4. Draw nigh, draw nigh, O David’s Key,
The Heav’nly Gate will ope to Thee;
Make safe the way that leads on high,
And close the path to misery.
Rejoice! rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall be born for thee, O Israel!

5. Draw nigh, draw nigh, O Lord of Might,
Who to Thy tribes from Sinai’s height
In ancient time didst give the Law
In cloud and majesty and awe.
Rejoice! rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall be born for thee, O Israel!

Also found in George Radcliffe Woodward, ed., Songs of Syon (London: Schott & Co., Third Edition, 1908), #8, with attribution to Neale, alt. Woodward gives the last two lines of each verse as:

Rejoice, rejoice, Immanuel
Is born for thee, O Israel.

Also found in Arthur Henry Brown, ed., The Altar Hymnal (London: Griffith, Farrar, Okeden & Welsh, 1885), p. 15, who provides the correct chorus:

Rejoice! Rejoice! Immanuel
Shall be born for thee, O Israel!

This hymnal provides two tunes: “Veni Emmanuel” (Ancient Plain Song; harmony by W. H. Monk) and “Bayham Abbey” (composed by Arthur H. Brown):

John Mason Neale and Thomas Helmore, eds., Hymnal Noted - Parts I and II. London: Novello, 1856.

Veni, Veni Emmanuel, #65, p. 131

The Greater Antiphons, pp. 207-209.

Note from Neale:

This Advent Hymn is little more than a versification of some of the Christmas antiphons commonly called the O's.

There is also this note following the text: "Corrected from the first Edition for the Hymnal Noted; and thence copied, with alterations, in the Hymns Ancient and Modern, and elsewhere."

Editor's Notes:

In his introduction to the section that contains this hymn, Neale notes that the origin of this (and the other seven hymns in the section) may "be referred to about the same date; namely, the thirteenth century." In the table of contents, however, he notes that these hymns are "Apparently of the Twelfth Century."

Additional notes can be found under the translation: O Come, O Come, Emmanuel. See also Christ by Cynewulf, The O Antiphons, The Prose Antiphons and The Great Advent Antiphons.