Verse 1
Where is my strength, my faith, my God,
My confidence of boasting now!
Born down by sin’s revolting[1] load,
Beneath its iron yoke I bow,
Again indignantly I groan;
My strength, my faith, my God is gone.

Verse 2
Departed is the Lord from me,
Weak as another man I am,
Spoil’d of my power and liberty
I bear my punishment and shame;
The world their feeble foe despise,
Their god hath put out both mine eyes.

Verse 3
Into their hands by sin betray’d,
(The sin I cherish’d in my breast)
Low in the deepest dungeon laid,
Fetter’d in brass, by guilt opprest;
A slave to Satan I remain,
And bite, but cannot burst my chain.

Verse 4
Now to their idol’s temple brought,
A sport I am to fiends and men,
They set my helplesness at nought,
They triumph in my toil and pain:
Th’ uncircumcis’d lift up their voice,
And Dagon’s worshippers rejoice.

Verse 5
Remember me, O Lord, my God,
If ever I could call thee mine;
Though now I perish in my blood,
And all my hopes of heaven resign,
Yet listen to my latest call,
Nor suffer me alone to fall.

Verse 6
O cast not out my dying prayer,
Strengthen me with thy Spirit’s might
This only once: I pray thee, hear,
Avenge me for my loss of sight,
Avenge it on mine enemies,
For they have put out both mine eyes.

Verse 7
Blind as I am, with both my hands
The pillars let me feel, and seize
On which the house of Dagon stands,
The pillars of self-righteousness.
’Tis done: with all my might I bow:
Help me, O God, and help me now!

Verse 8
Now let the pondrous ruin fall,
And crush the world, and Satan’s head,
O let it now o’erwhelm us all:
Since I must sink among the dead;
Since I can neither fight nor fly,
Let me with the Philistines die!

[1] The original has “revolving,” which is clearly a misprint from context; all other versions have “revolting.”