OCh hoort doch aen ô Heer!
A Cry for Deliverance
The psalmist-like speaker pleads for God to hear the suffering of His people and intervene against their oppressors.
O Lord, please listen. Hear the lament of your poor people, and notice how bitterly they cry out, wail, and weep once more.1 Lord, set us free at last.2 From all this tyranny—and look on our misery, or else we perish. Keep watch; let the enemy's pomp, his power and strength, be swiftly brought to nothing, so that, O Lord, your bride may not become his prey and spoil. Rise up quickly; strike the head that so oppresses and plagues us and hunts us everywhere. Then we, joyful and glad, will freely honor and praise you at all times, wherever we may be.✦3 Lord, show your gracious kindness, and break the enemy's cunning.4
Read the original Latin
OCh hoort doch aen ô Heer! Het klagen van dijn arm gemeent, En merckt eens aen hoe seer,, U volck nu weer,, klaegt, schreyt, en bitter weend! Heer maect ons eenmael vry! Van all' dees tyranny, En siet ons jammer aen, Of anders wy vergaen Hout ghy de wacht,, Laet 'svyants pracht,, Sijn macht,, En kracht,, Sijn haest tot niet gebracht, Op dat o Heer u bruyd Niet werd'haer prooy' en buyt,, Staet haest'lyck op, Slaet op de kop, Die ons dus druct en plaegt,, End' overal verjaegt; Soo sullen wy, Verheucht en bly, U 'tallen ty, Waer 't sy, Vry eer bewysen,, En prijsen. Heer toont u goetjonstigheyd, End' breect 'svyants listigheyd.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Gen.3.15 — I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.
Notes
- 1 ↩gemeent can mean congregation/church community; rendered as 'people' with 'volck' in parallel, keeping the sense of God's poor flock.
- 2 ↩eenmael can mean 'once,' 'once for all,' or 'at last'; rendered as 'at last' for the petition's urgency in context of ongoing tyranny.
- 3 ↩'svyants = des vijands ('the enemy's'); bruyd is the church as Christ's bride; prooy' en buyt = prey and spoil/booty.
- 4 ↩goetjonstigheyd is favor/gracious kindness/benevolence; listigheyd is cunning, craft, or guile.
Nederlandtsche Gedenck-clanck (Netherlands Memorial Songs) companion
Never lose the rhythm again
Chosen Portion delivers your morning, midday and night office to your phone — the Hours, without the bells.
Chosen Portion is a modern Book of Hours: it turns the fixed-hour structure this collection preserves into scheduled, tappable daily prayer on your phone.
- Three daily prayer moments scheduled around your real calendar, not a monastery's
- Psalms and historic prayers sequenced for you — no page-flipping or decision fatigue
- A visible streak of completed offices, so the rhythm compounds instead of collapsing