Refrain: Een kindeken is ons gheboren in Bethlehem.
Des hadde Herodes thoren, dat scheen aen hem.
Dry Coninghen uytvercoren quamen te Jerusalem.
Sy vraeghden waer hy was gheboren, den Coninck der Joden.
Wy saghen in Orienten die sterre sijn.
Wy comen om hem te aenbidden, dat soete kindekyn. (Refrain)
Doen Herodes alsoo vernam, dat het kint geboren was,
Soo werden hy toornich ende gram, ende ontsach hem das,
Dat hy soo verliesen soude, sijn rijc was groot.
Hy sochte te brengen met rouwe dat kindeken ter doot. (Refrain)
Hy vraeghde met haestichheden, waer dat kint geboren was.
Te Bethlehem binnen der stede, soo was dat men daer las.
Ter weerelt is daer gheboren die Heere groot,
Die ons nu compt alle verlossen van de eeuwighe doot.
English translation
Refrain: A child was born to us in Bethlehem:
It angered Herod, which was plain for all to see.
Three chosen kings came to Jerusalem,
They asked where the king of the Jews had been born.
'We saw his star in the East.
We have come to pay homage to that sweet child.'
When Herod heard that the child had been born,
he was wrath and feared
that he would lose his kingdom in this way.
He tried to have the child cruelly murdered.
He quickly asked where the child had been born:
they read that it was in the town of Bethlehem,
it is there that the great Lord has been born to the world,
who has now come to save us all from eternal death.