Rorate, coeli, desuper, et nubes pluant iustum;
aperiatur terra, et germinet Salvatorem.
1 Ne irascáris Dómine, ne ultra memíneris iniquitátis:
ecce cívitas Sancti facta est desérta:
Sion desérta facta est: Jerúsalem desoláta est:
domus sanctificatiónis tuæ et glóriæ tuæ,
ubi laudavérunt te patres nostri. A. Roráte.
2 Peccávimus et facti sumus tamquam immúndus nos,
et cecídimus quasi fólium univérsi:
et iniquitátes nostræ quasi ventus abstulérunt nos:
abscondísti fáciem tuam a nobis,
et allisisti nos in manu iniquitátis nostræ. A. Roráte.
3 Vide Domine afflictiónem pópuli tui,
et mitte quem missúrus es:
emítte Agnum dominatórem terræ,
de Petra desérti ad montem fíliæ Sion:
ut áuferat ipse jugum captivitátis nostræ. A. Roráte.
4 Consolámini, consolámini, pópule meus: cito véniet salus tua:
quare mæróre consúmeris, quia innovávit te dolor?
Salvábo te, noli timére, ego enim sum Dóminus Deus tuus,
Sanctus Israel, Redémptor tuus. A. Roráte.
English translation
Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness.
1 Be not wroth very sore, O Lord,
neither remember iniquity forever:
Thy holy cities are a wilderness,
Sion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation:
Our holy and our beautiful house, where our fathers praisèd thee.
2 We have sinned, and are as an unclean thing,
and we all do fade as a leaf:
and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away;
thou hast hid thy face from us:
and hast consumed us, because of our iniquities.
3 Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord,
and my servant whom I have chosen;
that ye may know me and believe me: I even I, am the Lord,
and beside me there is no Saviour:
and there is none that can deliver out of my hand. [This 3rd verse, traditional in English, does not correspond to the Latin.]
4 Comfort ye, comfort ye my people,
my salvation shall not tarry:
I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions:
Fear not, for I will save thee: for I am the Lord thy God,
the Holy One of Israel, thy Redeemer.