Hymns from scripture
Hymns based on Isaiah 53
Isaiah 53 has given hymn writers words for 5 hymns in this library, by writers including Charlotte Elliott, Thomas Moore; Thomas Hastings, St. Bernard of Clairvaux; Arnulf and Abbot of Villers-la-Ville; Paul Gerhardt; James W. Alexander. Each is listed below with the lines that echo the chapter and the verses they draw on, quoted from the World English Bible, a public-domain modern translation.
The verse these hymns return to most is Isaiah 53:5: “But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought our peace was on him; and by his wounds we are healed.”
Hymn writers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries knew their Bibles almost by heart, and they wove its phrases into their lines — sometimes as a close paraphrase, as in the metrical psalms, and sometimes as a single image carried into a new setting. Reading the verse beside the line shows what the writer had in mind, and often why a hymn was chosen to be sung alongside a particular reading.
- Just as I Am, Without One Plea — Just as I am, without one plea,Isaiah 53:11
- Come, Ye Disconsolate — Come, ye disconsolate, where'er ye languish;Isaiah 53:5
- O sacred head now wounded — O sacred Head, now wounded,Isaiah 53:4–5
- The Lily of the Valley — I've found a friend in Jesus, He's everything to me,Isaiah 53:3–6
- What Child Is This — What Child is this, who, laid to rest,Isaiah 53:1–6