O Come, O Come, Emmanuel
An Advent prayer built from old titles for Christ, each asking God to come and save.
The words are public domain. We print a hymn only after checking it word for word against a dated old printing, and this one hasn’t been checked yet. Hymnary has it now.
“O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” at HymnaryAbout this hymn
The stanzas call on Jesus by names drawn from the prophets, among them Emmanuel and Dayspring, and ask him to come and set his people free.
The names come from Isaiah and other Old Testament books. Christians read them as promises that Jesus fulfills: Matthew 1:23 gives him the name Emmanuel, God with us.
It is sung in Advent. The words grew from Latin prayers called the O Antiphons, sung in the days before Christmas. John Mason Neale translated them into English in 1851.
For musicians and planners
| Words | Latin antiphons (medieval); Latin hymn in Psalteriolum Cantionum Catholicarum, Köln, 1710, 1710 | Public domain |
|---|---|---|
| Translation | John Mason Neale, 1851 | Public domain |
| Tune | VENI EMMANUEL · 15th-century French processional; adapted by Thomas Helmore, 1854 | Public domain |
Checked 2026-09-27 against hymnary.org text, tune and person pages (attribution and rights only). The words are not transcribed here yet.
Hymn numbers checked against Hymnary.org’s index of Evangelical Lutheran Worship. Full record: Hymnary.