Lo, how a rose e’er blooming, / From tender stem hath sprung. / Of Jesse’s lineage coming, / As men of old have sung; / It came, a flow’ret bright, / Amid the cold of winter, / When half spent was the night. // Isaiah ’twas foretold it, / The Rose I have in mind, / With Mary we behold it, / The virgin mother kind; / To show God’s love aright, / She bore to men a Savior, / When half spent was the night. ⁓ Es ist ein Ros entsprungen, The hymn has its roots in an unknown author before the 17th century

The rose in the German text is a symbolic reference to the Virgin Mary. The hymn makes reference to the Old Testament prophecies of Isaiah, which in Christian interpretation foretell the Incarnation of Christ, and to the Tree of Jesse, a traditional symbol of the lineage of Jesus. Because of its prophetic theme, the hymn is popular during the Christian season of Advent.