Jerusalem Of Gold

Yerushalayim Shel Zahav (Jerusalem Of Gold) (ירושלים של זהב) is a popular Israeli song written by Naomi Shemer in 1967. The original song described the Jewish people’s 2000-year longing to return to Jerusalem; Shemer added a final verse after the Six-Day War to celebrate Jerusalem’s unification under Israeli control.

Naomi Shemer wrote the original song for the Israeli Music Festival on May 15, 1967, the night after Israel’s nineteenth Independence Day. At that time, the Old City was under Jordanian rule; Jews had been barred from entering, and many holy sites had been desecrated. Only three weeks after the song was published, the Six-Day War broke out. The song was the battle cry and morale booster of the Israeli troops. Shemer even sang it for them before the war and festival, making them among the first in the world to hear it. On June 7, the Israel Defense Forces captured the eastern part of Jerusalem and the Old City from the Jordanians. When Shemer heard the paratroopers singing “Yerushalayim Shel Zahav” at the Western Wall, she wrote a final verse, reversing the phrases of lamentation found in the second verse. The line about shofars sounding from the Temple Mount is a reference to an event that actually took place on June 7.

Words in English:

The mountain air is clear as wine
And the scent of pines
Is carried on the breeze of twilight
With the sound of bells.

And in the slumber of tree and stone
Captured in her dream
The city that sits solitary
And in its midst is a wall.

Jerusalem of gold
And of bronze, and of light
Behold I am a violin for all your songs.
Jerusalem of gold
And of bronze, and of light
Behold I am a violin for all your songs.

We have returned to the cisterns
To the market and to the market-place
A ram’s horn calls out on the Temple Mount
In the Old City.

And in the caves in the mountain
Thousands of suns shine –
We will once again descend to the Dead Sea
By way of Jericho!

Jerusalem of gold
And of bronze, and of light
Behold I am a violin for all your songs.
Jerusalem of gold
And of bronze, and of light
Behold I am a violin for all your songs.

But as I come to sing to you today,
And to adorn crowns to you
I am the smallest of the youngest of your children
And of the last poet.

For your name scorches the lips
Like the kiss of a seraph
If I forget thee, Jerusalem,
Which is all gold…

Jerusalem of gold
And of bronze, and of light
Behold I am a violin for all your songs.
Jerusalem of gold
And of bronze, and of light
Behold I am a violin for all your songs.

Words, Hebrew:

Avir harim tzalul kayayin
Vereiach oranim,
Nisa beru’ach ha’arbayim
Im kol pa’amonim.

Uvetardemat ilan va’even
Shvuyah bachalomah,
Ha’ir asher badad yoshevet
Uvelibah chomah.

Yerushalayim shel zahav
Veshel nechoshet veshel or
Halo lechol shirayich ani kinor.
Yerushalayim shel zahav
Veshel nechoshet veshel or
Halo lechol shirayich ani kinor.

Chazarnu el borot hamayim
Lashuk velakikar,
Shofar kore behar habayit
ba’ir ha’atikah.

Uvame’arot asher baselah
Alfei shmashot zorchot,
Nashuv nered el yam hamelach
Bederech Yericho!

Yerushalayim shel zahav
Veshel nechoshet veshel or
Halo lechol shirayich ani kinor.
Yerushalayim shel zahav
Veshel nechoshet veshel or
Halo lechol shirayich ani kinor.

Ach bevo’i hayom lashir lach
Velach lik’shor k’tarim,
Katonti mitze’ir bana’ich
Ume’acharon ham’shorerim.

Ki shmech tzorev et hasfatayim
Keneshikat saraf ,
Im eshkachech Yerushalayim
Asher kulah zahav…

Yerushalayim shel zahav
Veshel nechoshet veshel or
Halo lechol shirayich ani kinor.
Yerushalayim shel zahav
Veshel nechoshet veshel or
Halo lechol shirayich ani kinor.

Words/Music: Naomi Shemer

Transliteration: http://www.hebrewsongs.com
Translation: http://www.hebrewsongs.com

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