It aren’t the Jews

We have the lucky occasion that some beautiful words are coming to be well known more and more by Christian believers of the Netherlands. They are from the excellent poet Jacobus Revius. Best known words of him are these: (translated)

It aren’t the Jews, o Lord Yesu, who nailed you on the cross,
Neither they who treacherously brought you to the judge,
Neither they who spewed in your face,
Neither they who bind and knocked you with fists,

It aren’t the soldiers who with their fierce hands
The stick or hammer lifted up,
Or the cursed tree on Golgotha had placed,
Or casted lots about your coat:

It’s me, o Lord, it’s me, I did it unto you!
I am the heavy tree which overweighed you,
I am the strongly rope which bound you to,

The nail, the spear, the whip who slain you,
The bloody crone born by your head:
Because this all had happened, so sadly! through my sins.

The translation can be much better, but the purpose is clear: It aren’t the Jews, I did it.

It’s the poem “Hy droech onse smerten” from album “Over-Ysselsche sangen en dichten“.

In another poem he said about “His blood be on us, and on our children” (Mat.27:25):

This I also said to you, o saviour full of grace!
Thou blood be on me and on my family.
Thou blood be on me to take my sin away,
And on my children to clean their inborn evil,
And save their souls from pain.

Jacobus Revius (1586-1658)