Nativity Hymn 17: The Children of Bethlehem

Refrain of the hymn: Praise to you from every mouth on this day of your birth!

Babies were slain because of your birth, you Giver of life to all.

But because he who was slain was a King, our Lord, the Lord of kingdoms,

the tyrant in his cunning gave slain hostages for him,

clothed in the mysteries of his slaying. The ranks of heaven received

the hostages that those of earth offered.

Refrain: Blessed be the King who magnified him!

All the kings of the house of David handed on and passed from one to the next

the throne and crown of the Son of David, as guardians of a trust.

In one they reached their bound and limit, when he came, the Lord of all things,

and took all things away from them, and cut off the handing on of all things.

Refrain: Blessed be he who is clothed in what is his own!

The doves moaned in Bethlehem, because the serpent destroyed their young.

The eagle made his way to Egypt, to go down and receive the promises.

Egypt rejoiced in him, because there came to it abundance for the payment of debts,

which had failed the sons of Joseph. Among the sons of Joseph he labored and paid

the debts of the sons of Joseph.

Refrain: Blessed is he who called him out of Egypt!

The scribes read daily that the Star rises out of Jacob.

For the People had the voice and the reading; the nations had the rising of the Star and its meaning.

For them were the books and for us the deeds; for them the branches and for us the fruits.

The scribes read in things written; the Magi saw in things done the shining out of what was read.

Refrain: Blessed be he who added their books to us!

Who is able to tell of the vanishing and the appearings

of the shining star that went before the bearers of the offerings?

It appeared and proclaimed the crown; it was hidden and concealed his body.

For the Son it was in two ways both herald and guardian:

it guarded his body; it proclaimed his crown.

Refrain: Blessed is he who has given wisdom to those who proclaim him!

The tyrant gazed at the Magi as they asked, “Where is the son of the King?”

While his heart was gloomy, he tried to put on a cheerful face.

With the sheep he sent wolves to kill the Lamb of God.

The Lamb went down to Egypt, so that from there he might judge them,

from where he had saved them.

Refrain: Blessed be he who subdued them yet again!

The Magi declared to the tyrant:

“When your servants joined us, the bright star withdrew, and the paths hid themselves.”

The blessed ones did not know that the king had sent bitter enemies,

murderers posing as worshipers, to destroy the sweet fruit

which the bitter eat and are made sweet.

Refrain: Glory to you, Medicine of life!

When the Magi received the command there to go and seek him,

it is written of them that they saw that bright star and rejoiced.

So it is known that it had been withdrawn; that is why they rejoiced at the sight of it.

It hid and held back the murderers; it rose and called the worshipers.

It overthrew one part, and it called the other.

Refrain: Blessed be he who has triumphed in both parts!

The hateful one who killed the children, how did he overlook the Child?

Justice held him back, so that he thought the Magi would come back to him.

While he stayed waiting to seize the Worshiped One and his worshipers,

everything escaped his hands; the offerings and the worshipers fled

from the tyrant to the Son of the King.

Refrain: Glory to him who knows all counsels!

The blameless Magi, as they slept, pondered on their beds.

Sleep became a mirror, and a dream rose on it like light.

They saw the murderer and trembled, as his guile and his sword flashed out.

He taught the men guile; he sharpened the sword to sharpness:

the Watcher taught the sleepers.

Refrain: Blessed is he who gives prudence to the simple!

The simple who believe have known two comings of Christ,

but the foolish scribes have not perceived even one coming.

Yet the nations have life in the first, and in the second they will rise again.

The People whose mind is blinded, the first coming has scattered;

the second will blot out their memory.

Refrain: Blessed be the King who has come and is to come!

When the Savior rose, as for the blind: the Sun showed his rays,

and they were clothed in darkness. The Brightness sent out his light,

and he brought the sons of the stars to expose the sons of darkness.

For see, among you is the star, but on your eyes is the veil.

Refrain: Glory to you, newborn Sun!

Prophets spoke of his birth, but they did not make its time plain.

He sent the Magi, and they came and showed its time.

Yet the Magi who made the time known did not make plain who the Child would be.

A star of splendid light showed in its course who the Child was,

and how splendid his lineage was.

Refrain: Blessed be he who was pointed out by them all!

They scorned the trumpet of Isaiah, which sounded out his pure conception;

they silenced the lute of the Psalms, which sang of his priesthood;

they hushed the harp of the Spirit, which sang again of his kingdom.

Under deep silence they shut away the great birth that joined the cry

of those above with those below.

Refrain: Blessed be he who appeared in the midst of silence!

His voice was the secret key that opened the mouths of the Magi.

While the preachers were silent in Judah, the Magi made their voice sound through creation;

and the good news which those had scorned, these who came from far away took with them as they departed.

The scorners began to hear their own orders from strangers, who cried out the name of the Son of David.

Refrain: Blessed be he who has put them to silence by our voice!

Since the People scorned offerings and did not bring them to him, the Son of the King,

he sent his herald to the nations and made them come with their offerings.

Yet he did not make all of them come, for the narrow bosom of Bethlehem

could not have held them; but the bosom of Holy Church

enlarged itself and held her children.

Refrain: Blessed be he who has made the barren fruitful!

The killers of Bethlehem mowed down the tender flowers, so that among them

the tender seedling might perish in which the Bread of life was hidden.

But the ear of grain that has life had escaped, so that it might come to the sheaves at harvest;

the grape that escaped when young gave itself to the treading,

so that its wine might give life to souls.

Refrain: Glory to you, Treasury of life!

The murderers went into a paradise full of tender fruits.

They shook the flowers off the branch; they destroyed blossoms and buds.

The persecutor offered unblemished offerings without knowing it.

Woe to him, but blessing to them! Bethlehem was the first to give virgin fruits to the Holy One.

Refrain: Blessed is he who receives the first fruits!

The scribes were silenced by envy, the Pharisees by jealousy.

Men of stone, who had hearts of stone, cried out and gave praise.

They applauded in the presence of the Stone, the rejected one who has become the Head.

Stones were made flesh by that Stone and gained mouths to speak; stones cried out through that Stone.

Refrain: Blessed be your birth, which has made stones cry out!

The nations saw from far away the Star that is written of in Scripture,

so that the People who are near might be put to shame. O People, instructed and puffed up!

You have been instructed in turn by the nations, how and where they saw

that vision of which Balaam spoke. A stranger was he who spread the word of it;

strangers were they who saw it.

Refrain: Blessed is he who has provoked those of his own house to jealousy!

Let my plea draw near to your door, and my poverty to your treasury!

Give to me, my Lord, without measure, as God gives to man!

And though you increase your gifts as Son of the Blessed, and though you add to them as Son of the King,

though I am thankless, as all creatures of dust are (as Adam is, so is the son of Adam),

and as the Blessed is, so too is the Son of the Blessed.

Refrain: Praise be to you, who are like your Father!