Ach Gott vom Himmel, sieh darein (English Translations)

The English translation history of Martin Luther’s "Ach Gott vom Himmel, sieh darein" spans from the dawn of the Reformation to the late Victorian era, falling into two distinct categories: versions adopted for common congregational use and independent literary translations.

Translations in Common Use

Four principal nineteenth-century versions secured a stable position within English and American denominational hymnals:

The first common use version was produced by Caroline Fry in her Hymns of the Reformation (1845), opening with the line "Oh Lord our God, from heaven look down." In 1860, Fry's renderings of the fifth and sixth stanzas were heavily restructured into a 5-stanza Common Meter variant beginning "Almighty God, Thy truth shall stand," which was subsequently adopted into John Whittemore's Supplement to all Hymn Books.

The second major version, "O God! look down from heav'n, we pray," was a free translation by William Morton Reynolds published in the Gettysburg Evangelical Review in July 1849. Reynolds condensed the second and third stanzas into a single verse, and this arrangement was cataloged in 1850 as entry Number 965 in the Hymn Book of the General Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the United States.

The third rendition, "Ah God, look down from heaven and see," was executed by Richard Massie for his Spiritual Songs of Luther in 1854. In 1880, this specific version was integrated into the Lutheran Hymnal of the Ohio Synod, appearing as entry Number 147 under a slightly modified first line, "O God, look down from heaven and see."

The fourth widely adopted text was prepared by Catherine Winkworth, the foremost nineteenth-century translator of German chorales. Her version, "Ah God, from heav'n look down, and see," omitted the original third stanza. It was published as entry Number 101 in her landmark collection, The Chorale Book for England, in 1863.

Supplementary and Historical Translations

A number of notable historical and literary translations were published without achieving widespread congregational adoption:

• 1539: Bishop Miles Coverdale published "Helpe now, O Lorde, and loke on us" in his Goostly Psalmes and Spiritual Songes, later preserved in his collected Remains (1846).

• 1568: An early Scottish variant, "Saif us, gude Lord, and succour send," was printed in the expanded edition of The Gude and Godly Ballates.

• 1722: John Christian Jacobi rendered the text as "O Lord in Mercy cast an Eye" for his Psalmodia Germanica.

• 1841: Frances Elizabeth Cox included "Look down, O Lord, from heaven behold" in her Sacred Hymns from the German, a text later reprinted by Dr. Leonard Woolsey Bacon in 1884.

• 1846: John Anderson produced the translation "Ah, God! from heaven high look down" for his Chorales of the Luther Church.

• 1853: Dr. John Hunt published a literal rendering beginning "Ah! Lord, from heaven Thy people see" in his Spiritual Songs of Martin Luther.

• 1856: Dr. Henry Mills offered a version titled "On us, O Lord, in mercy look" in his Sacred Lyrics from the German.

• 1867: Dr. George MacDonald published "Ah! God in heaven, look down anew" in the pages of the Sunday Magazine. When he compiled his anthology Exotics in 1876, he adjusted his first line to read "Ah God, from heaven look down and view."

• 1877: F. W. Young contributed a late Victorian variant, "O God, from heaven our troubles view," to the periodical The Family Treasury.