Israel Returning From Captivity

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Why, on the bending willows hung

Author: James Joyce
Published in 86 hymnals

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Representative Text

1 Why on the bending willows hung,
Israel! still sleeps thy tuneful string?
Still mute remains thy sullen tongue,
And Zion's song denies to sing?

2 Awake! thy sweetest raptures raise;
Let harp and voice unite their strains:
Thy promised King his sceptre sways:
Jesus, thine own Messiah, reigns!

3 No taunting foes the song require;
No strangers mock thy captive chain;
But friends provoke the silent lyre,
And brethren ask the holy strain.

4 Nor fear thy Salem's hills to wrong,
If other lands thy triumphs share:
A heavenly city claims thy song;
A brighter Salem rises there.

5 By foreign streams no longer roam;
Nor, weeping, think of Jordan's flood:
In every clime behold a home,
In every temple see thy God.

Source: Laudes Domini: a selection of spiritual songs, ancient and modern for use in the prayer-meeting #521

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Author: James Joyce

Joyce, James, M.A., was born at Frome, Somersetshire, Nov. 2, 1781, and was for some years Vicar of Dorking, and died there Oct. 9, 1850. He published A Treatise on Love to God, &c, 1822, The Lays of Truth, a Poem, 1825; and Hymns with Notes, 1849. This last is a small work which he compiled for his parishioners. It is composed of passages of Holy Scripture, Meditations, and 20 Hymns. Of his hymns, the following are in common use:— 1. Disown'd of Heav'n, by man opprest. [On behalf of the Jews.] Tlds appeared in the Christian Observer, Nov., 1809, in 5 stanzas of 4 lines, headed, "Hymn applicable to the present condition of the Jews," and signed "J. J." The form in which it is known to modern collections is, "O why should Israel's so… Go to person page >

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First Line:	Why, on the bending willows hung
Title:	Israel Returning From Captivity
Author:	James Joyce
Meter:	8.8.8.8
Language:	English
Copyright:	Public Domain