The Joy of All Nations

1 O tell us, ye that from your home,
In fertile Mesopotamia come,
Ye Parthians, Medes, and Persians, say,
What wondrous rapture is yours today?
O tell us why your voices ring,
And all so joyfully, cheerily, merrily sing?

2 Refrain
“In our own tongues, sublime and clear,
The Gospel’s glorious sound we hear,
How Jesus died, and rose again,
And poureth His Spirit on all men.”
Hallelujah, Hallelujah,
Hallelujah. Amen.

3 Ye pilgrims from the Aegaean Sea,
And Phrygian valleys of song and glee,—
From where the stormy Pontus roars,
To rude Pamphylia’s rugged shores.
O tell us why your voices ring,
And all so joyfully, cheerily, merrily sing?

4 Ye swarthy sons of Father Nile,
And ye from many a sea-girt isle,
From warm Cyrene’s luscious land,
And Libyan deserts of drifting sand.
O tell us why your voices ring,
And all so joyfully, cheerily, merrily sing?

5 Ye cohorts bold, that hither come
From proud, imperial, splendid Rome,
What tidings can a Jew impart
That thus can ravish a Roman heart?
O tell us why your voices ring,
And all so joyfully, cheerily, merrily sing?

6 O say, ye lusty Cretans, who
Sail o’er the Mediterranean blue,
And ye who on your camels bear
Rich freight of Araby’s incense rare,—
O tell us why your voices ring,
And all so joyfully, cheerily, merrily sing?

7 Ye tongues and tribes of living men,
When leafy Summer is come again,—
When birds sing loud on every side,
And earth is blooming in Whitsuntide,—
O tell us why your voices ring,
And all so joyfully, cheerily, merrily sing?

Source: The Sunday School Hymnal: with offices of devotion #93

• MIDI file from The Sunday School Hymnal: with offices of devotion #93