Isaiah 52:13-53:3: "13 Behold, my servant shall act wisely; he shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted. 14 As many were astonished at you - his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind - 15 so shall he sprinkle many nations; kings shall shut their mouths because of him; for that which has not been told them they see, and that which they have not heard they understand.
"53 Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? 2 For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. 3 He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not."
Romans 5:6: "For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly."
Romans 5:10: "For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life."
Philippians 2:5-11: "5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."
Acts 3:13-15: "13 The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus, whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release him. 14 But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, 15 and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses."
+++
The text is public domain:
My song is love unknown,
My Savior's love to me,
Love to the loveless shown
That they might lovely be.
Oh, who am I
That for my sake
My Lord should take
Frail flesh and die?
He came from His blest throne
Salvation to bestow;
But men made strange, and none
The longed-for Christ would know.
But, oh, my friend,
My friend indeed,
Who at my need
His life did spend!
Sometimes they strew His way
And His sweet praises sing;
Resounding all the day
Hosannas to their King.
Then "Crucify!"
Is all their breath,
And for His death
They thirst and cry.
Why, what hath my Lord done?
What makes this rage and spite?
He made the lame to run,
He gave the blind their sight.
Sweet injuries!
Yet they at these
Themselves displease
And 'gainst Him rise.
They rise and needs will have
My dear Lord made away;
A murderer they save,
The Prince of Life they slay.
Yet cheerful He
To suff'ring goes
That He His foes
From thence might free.
In life no house, no home
My Lord on earth might have;
In death no friendly tomb
But what a stranger gave.
What may I say?
Heav'n was His home
But mine the tomb
Wherein He lay.
Here might I stay and sing,
No story so divine!
Never was love, dear King,
Never was grief like Thine.
This is my friend,
In whose sweet praise
I all my days
Could gladly spend!
+++
Romans 5:6 and 5:10 seem to be the two main sources for the hymn. "At the right time Christ died for the ungodly" and "while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son" are expressed in various spots in the hymn, particularly the first verse and the end of the fifth: "Yet cheerful He / To suff'ring goes / That He His foes / From thence might free." These lines from the fifth verse and "My Lord should take / Frail flesh and die" from the first verse also connect to the text from Philippians, especially "taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men" and "he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross."
The first half of verse five comes from Acts 3:13-15. "But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, and you killed the Author of life" is rendered as "A murderer they save, / The Prince of Life they slay."
The text from Isaiah (particularly "He was... acquainted with grief" from 53:3) seems to appear in the last verse: "Never was grief like Thine." "His appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind" from 52:14 might also be hinted at in the line "Sweet injuries!"
The third verse has a few lines with uncited Biblical sources. The first half ("Sometimes they strew His way / And His sweet praises sing; / Resounding all the day / Hosannas to their King.") summarizes the triumphal entry into Jerusalem (Matthew 21:1-11, Mark 11:1-10, Luke 19:28-40, and John 12:12-15). The second half (Then "Crucify!" / Is all their breath") is in all four Gospels: Matthew 27:22: "Pilate said to them, 'Then what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?' They all said, 'Let him be crucified!'" Mark 15:12-14: "12 And Pilate again said to them, 'Then what shall I do with the man you call the King of the Jews?' 13 And they cried out again, 'Crucify him.' 14 And Pilate said to them, 'Why, what evil has he done?' But they shouted all the more, 'Crucify him.'" Luke 23:20-23: "20 Pilate addressed them once more, desiring to release Jesus, 21 but they kept shouting, 'Crucify, crucify him!' 22 A third time he said to them, 'Why, what evil has he done? I have found in him no guilt deserving death. I will therefore punish and release him.' 23 But they were urgent, demanding with loud cries that he should be crucified. And their voices prevailed." John 19:6: "When the chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out, 'Crucify him, crucify him!'"
"In death no friendly tomb / But what a stranger gave" in the sixth verse refers to Joseph of Arimathea. As far as I can tell, that the tomb is Joseph's own is mentioned only in Matthew 27:59-60: "59 And Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen shroud 60 and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had cut in the rock. And he rolled a great stone to the entrance of the tomb and went away."
