Traditional: Collected Lyrics
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Public-domain lyrics

Exite, Sion Filiae

Traditional

“Exite, Sion Filiae” as printed in Mediaeval Hymns and Sequences (1867).

Traditional: Collected Lyrics Text 301 1867 · historical text
Public domainHymnMediaeval song
Complete public-domain lyrics

This text comes from Mediaeval Hymns and Sequences, edited by John Mason Neale, a historical songbook transcribed on Wikisource and reproduced from the pinned revision linked below.

Verse 1

Daughters of Sion, see your King!

Go forth, go forth to meet Him!

Your Solomon is hastening

Where that dear flock shall greet Him!

The sceptre and the crown by right

He wears, in robe of purple dight.

Verse 2

Your Solomon, the Prince of Peace,

Bears not His Mother's laurel:

But with the olive bids to cease

The long and bloody quarrel:

Jesus, the Son of God Most High,

Offers His peace to them that die.

Verse 3

It glitters fair, His Diadem,

That Thorns are there entwining:

And from the Red sea comes each gem

That in its wreath is shining:

Their radiance glows like stars at night:

With precious blood-drops are they bright.

Verse 4

The Royal Sceptre that He bears

Beneath Whom nature quaketh,

No monarch's pride and pomp declares,

A Reed, it feebly shaketh:

For iron sceptre ne'er possess'd

The power to guide a human breast.

Verse 5

The Festive Purple of the Lord,

Is here no garment stately:

A vest, by very slaves abhorred;

—The worm hath tinged it lately:

"I am a Worm," of old said He,—

And what its toils have tinged, ye see.

Verse 6

We therefore to the King of kings

Bow lowly, from Him learning

The pomp and pride that this world brings

To make our boast in spurning:

Such love the members best adorns,

For whom the Head was crowned with thorns. Amen.

Credits

Written by Traditional

Traditional words. Historical text published in Mediaeval Hymns and Sequences (1867); public domain. No claim to a modern recording or arrangement.

Source & text edition

Mediaeval Hymns and Sequences (1867), edited by John Mason Neale, “Exite, Sion Filiae”

The 1867 published edition is in the public domain in the United States (pre-1931 publication). Entries whose credited author or translator died more than 70 years ago are also in the public domain in life-plus-70 jurisdictions; other entries are held.

How to read this historical text and its source

Read the source on Wikisource

View copyright evidence · Transcription terms (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Retrieved 2026-10-25. Line spacing and section labels are adapted for reading. The displayed text follows the linked edition. Editorial notes and abstract artwork are by 52lyrics.
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