Now that Advent, the start of the church’s liturgical year, has begun, we start to sing “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel”. It’s the classic advent hymn, but the words can seem impenetrable. So what’s it all about?

1. Longing for the Messiah

The central theme of this hymn is a longing for appearance of the Messiah, the Christ or “Anointed One”, who the Jews learn will act as a saviour.

The old testament forecasts the coming of this Messiah, especially in the beautiful description of Isaiah 9 (the “wonderful, counsellor” of Handel’s Messiah). But for understanding this hymn, Daniel 9 is a good place to look.

Daniel indicates what it’s such an important idea to the Jews in the centuries before Jesus. In the chapter, he prays about how the Israelites have been “scattered” (the exile of the hymn’s lyrics) and asks for God’s forgiveness for the sins of his nation.

He says: “Lord, you are righteous, but this day we are covered with shame—the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, both near and far, in all the countries where you have scattered us because of our unfaithfulness to you.”

At that point the angel Gabriel then appears and tells him of the Anointed One (who “will be put to death”) and talks about a time that is “to atone for wickedness [and] to bring in everlasting righteousness”.

2. Liberation from the yolk of sin

The words “ransom captive Israel” in the first verse derive from Isaiah 35:10. The come from a prophesy in which God “will come and save you”, perform miracles healing the deaf, blind and lame, and offer “the way of holiness”. Isaiah then says:

and the ransomed of the Lord shall return,
and come to Zion with songs
and everlasting joy upon their heads:
they shall obtain joy and gladness,
and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

In other words, the hymn is referencing a prophesy about Jesus coming and providing a ransom. The obvious way someone would read Isaiah during the exile in the old testament is that God will sort out the earthly politics and return the Jews to Judea and Israel.

But there is a bigger meaning. The start of 1 Peter refers to Christians as “exiles scattered throughout the provinces”, using that same word, scattered, that Daniel chose. Jesus’s mission on earth was not as a “saviour” to overthrow the Roman occupation of the Jewish lands but to offer the gift of salvation to the whole world.

3. Jesus appears in the family tree of King David

In the gospels of Matthew and Luke, we find family trees which connect Jesus, through Joseph, up to King David, and then to his father Jesse.

So when the hymn refers to “Thou Rod of Jesse”, it’s making reference to the father of the great king who God regarded as a man after his own heart. The phrase comes from Isaiah 11 (AKJV):

And there shall come forth a rod [shoot] out of the stem [or stump] of Jesse,
and a Branch shall grow out of his roots:
and the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him,
the spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the spirit of counsel and might,
the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord;

4. Jesus holds the key to heaven

The fourth verse starts with: “O come, Thou Key of David, come”.

This references two verses in the bible.

In Isaiah 22, Eliakim, the highest office under King Hezekiah of Judah, has the “key of David”. He’s the man who has authority over the king’s household and is able to unlock access to the king. The phrase “key of David” also appears in the bible in Revelation 3:7, where Jesus has the key.

In 1 Timothy 2:5, we read that “there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus”. This builds on Jesus’s words in John 14:6: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well”.

So “Thou Key of David”, in the hymn, is a reference to an attribute that Jesus holds.

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Lyrics

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 [meaning my Lord], 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.