When it is said
In the hymn the childless wives of Bethlehem say these words while they carry the newborn Christ.
A husband and wife might say them together, or one of them alone, at any moment of the day.
Where it comes from
Author known
The night of His birth
St Ephrem’s hymn pictures the night Christ was born. Angels sing, and shepherds come with milk and a lamb from their flocks. Old men and women of Bethlehem give thanks. Some women ask the Child to bless the fruit of their wombs. Then the women who have no children carry Him in their arms, rejoicing, and say these words.
Ephrem, Hymns on the Nativity, Hymn 5, tr. J. B. Morris (NPNF II/13)
St Ephrem
Ephrem was born early in the 4th century in the Mesopotamian city of Nisibis, and he died about AD 373. After Nisibis was handed over to Persia in AD 363, he settled at Edessa and lived alone on a rocky hill near the town. He wrote a great many hymns and formed a choir of nuns who sang them in the churches every morning and evening.
John Gwynn, introduction to Ephraim the Syrian, NPNF II/13 (1898)
In English since 1847
J. B. Morris translated the first 13 hymns on the Nativity from the Syriac in 1847, using the Roman edition of Ephrem’s works printed in 1743. John Gwynn reprinted them in 1898 and softened some of Morris’s harsh expressions to make them easier to read.
The Scripture in it
In a loud voice she exclaimed, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!”
Bible text: Berean Standard Bible, public domain.