Shepherd of Is­ra­el, bow Thine ear;
O Thou, our pray­er in­dul­gent hear,
Who Jo­seph’s pas­ture hast pre­pared,
His guide by day, by night his guard;
Betwixt the che­rubs seat­ed high;
Glad with Thy beams our long­ing eyes!

With all who from Ma­nas­seh claim
Their birth, and all of Eph­ra­im’s name,
Each hos­tile pow­er by Thee o’er­thrown,
Let Ben­ja­min Thy pre­sence own!
How long, great God, shall Is­ra­el see
Thy wrath, nor bend the stub­born knee?

Behold a vine from Egypt’s land,
Transplanted by Thy fos­ter­ing hand.
Behold in Ca­naan’s shores her bed
By Thee pre­pare, her root out­spread
Far as the ut­most coast ex­tends,
While o’er the hills her shade ex­tends.

Her branch­es, tow­er­ing to the skies,
With health­ful stem con­spi­cu­ous rise,
Round the tall ce­dar’s lof­ti­est boughs
Her co­ver­ing veil en­twined she throws;
And, strengthen­ed by Thy pow­er, de­fies
Each storm that rends the win­try skies.

Long cher­ished by Thy care she stood;
Here, verg­ing toward th’As­sy­ri­an flood,
In cir­cuit wide the earth she crowned,
And there, the ocean marked her bound.
But now, in sad re­verse (ah, why?)
By Thee o’er­thrown the fenc­es lie.

The fruit ex­posed be­side the way,
To each ra­pa­cious band a prey;
The sa­vage boar with rest­less toil
Uproots it from the loos­ened soil,
And ev­ery mon­ster of the wood
Crops from the branch his ob­vi­ous food.

Leader of hosts, and Is­ra­el’s Lord!
Return; Thy suc­cors oft im­plored
Extend: from Heav’n’s high seat in­cline
Thy eyes, and vi­sit this Thy vine.
Turn them again, Thy face dis­play,
And grief and fear shall fly away.