Back to: The Twelve Days of Christmas Carols
O come, O come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here,
Until the Son of God appear.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.
O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan’s tyranny;
From depths of hell Thy people save,
And give them victory o’er the grave.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.
O come, Thou Dayspring, from on high,
And cheer us by Thy drawing nigh;
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
And death’s dark shadows put to flight.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.
O come, Thou Key of David, come
And open wide our heav’nly home;
Make safe the way that leads on high,
And close the path to misery.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.
O come, Adonai, Lord of might,
Who to Thy tribes, on Sinai’s height,
In ancient times didst give the law
In cloud and majesty and awe.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.
Verse 1
The first verse of the song is taken from Isaiah 7:14 and Matthew 1:23. It introduces Emmanuel—“God with us”—and Israel as a symbol for the Christian world held captive on a dark and sinful Earth. “Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call His name Immanuel.” As Matthew records in his gospel (1:23), this name means “God with us.”
“O come, O come, Emmanuel And ransom captive Israel That mourns in lonely exile here Until the Son of God appear.”
“Ransom captive Israel” is a reference to Isaiah 35:10 and Jeremiah 31:11. In these passages, the prophets speak of Israel in their bondage and the redemption the LORD performs on behalf of Israel to restore them to Zion.
However, although Israel was physically restored out of captivity to her land, she remained in spiritual exile. Even after the captivity, Israel struggled with sins such as intermarriage (Ezra 10) and neglecting to give to the LORD (Haggai 1 and Malachi 3). Moreover, there was a silence of 400 years after the close of the Old Testament with no further word from the LORD “until the Son of God appeared.”
Israel needed rescue from captivity. And so do we. When we sing the first few words of this song, we can remember the depth of God’s love for us by sending His Son Jesus—God wrapped in flesh—to rescue us from our sins and ourselves
The verse reflect the expectation of a messiah in Israel as they call for a savior who will liberate the nation of Israel. This verse also refers to the Babylonian Exile. The fifth verse further echoes their expectations when it refers to God giving the law to Moses on Mt. Sinai. If we put these verses together, we may say that the Hebrews repent for forsaking the Law of Moses and wish to be saved from the exile; based on the circumstances and the prophecies, they expect a messiah to free them from the political powers that constrain them.
However, the other verses expand the expectation of a messiah to include qualities of Jesus that came but were not anticipated–first and foremost, “giving victory o’er the grave.” A messiah who would defeat sin and death is not what the Hebrews expected, but Jesus is the gift God gave all nations in His radical love and mercy. As the last verse reads, Jesus can “bind all peoples in one heart and mind.”
Considering the repetition of “Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel” alongside clear references to Old Testament events yet also unique attributes of Jesus, the author (intentionally or not) asserts that even if Jesus is not who and what the Hebrews expected, He IS their messiah…along with all peoples.
Verse 2
Isaiah 11 serves as the theme for the verse that begins “O come, thou rod of Jesse, free” (in some translations this is called the “Branch of Jesse”). Rod is “a straight slender stick growing on or cut from a tree or bush.” (Merriam-Webster). In it the rod of Jesse represents Christ, who is the only one who can defeat Satan and bring eternal life to all those who follow him.
Verse 3
O come, O Dayspring, come and cheer” presents the image of the morning star, a concept that can be traced back to Malachi 4:2. In this verse, the song states that the coming Savior will bring justice, honesty, and truth. He will enlighten and cast out the darkness. As Malachi promises: “The sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings.”
Another possibility is that “Dayspring” is a reference to Luke 1:78, “the dayspring from on high hath visited us.” This is at the end of Zechariah’s “Benedictus” over the birth of his son John. In the preceding verses, Zechariah says that John will go before the Lord to prepare his ways and give knowledge of salvation to people by the forgiveness of their sins. This will be possible because of the mercy of God that has manifested itself in the “Dayspring.” Dayspring is an older word for dawn or sunrise. Because Christ is the sunrise, He disperses the clouds of the night and causes the dark shadows of death to flee.
Verse 4
The lyrics then turn to “O come, thou key of David,” a reference to Isaiah 22:22. “And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder; so he shall open and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open.”
The words in this verse explain that the newborn King holds the key to the heavenly kingdom and there is no way to get into the kingdom but through him.
In the original prophecy, Isaiah is speaking this in reference to Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, who was the finance minister under King Hezekiah. The name Eliakim means “whom God will raise up.” However, the statement “he shall open and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open” is clearly prophetic of Jesus as the Messiah.
Jesus would later apply these words to Himself in the letter to the church at Philadelphia (Revelation 3:7), “The words of the holy one, the true one, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, who shuts and no one opens.” Because Christ has the Key of David and has the authority to open and shut, He is the one who has “gone to prepare a place for us” (John 14:2) as our heavenly home.
Verse 5
The verse that begins “O come, O come, Adonai” (in some texts this reads “O come thou wisdom from on high”) centers on the source of true wisdom. This comes only from God through his Son. Through the Savior, this wisdom can reach around the world and bring peace and understanding to all men.
“O come, Adonai, Lord of might,
Who to Thy tribes, on Sinai’s height,
In ancient times didst give the law
In cloud and majesty and awe.”
This verse was likely inspired by Exodus 19:16, where the Lord appeared on Mount Sinai in the form of a cloud and a trumpet blast. He did this to make Himself known to the Israelites.
“Path of knowledge” is possibly a reference to Isaiah 40:14, “Who instructed him, and taught him in the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge…” This passage is asking a series of rhetorical questions to show the supremacy of God, for no one exercises authority over him or teaches him anything.
Scripture does teach that it is by wisdom that God made the earth and established its order (Jeremiah 51:15, Psalm 104:24).