Rachel Is Weeping

song lyrics & story

One of our HtH music directors is the multi-talented John Vooys, who joined our community in 2010. Since the beginning of HtH, we have been studying the disturbing topics of human trafficking and sexual exploitation. Out of this difficult study and discussion, John was moved in 2013 to write a hauntingly beautiful composition for the choir. Here is what he wrote about the song:

"It's an arrangement of something I wrote for myself to sing with solo piano, so it may or may not be a fitting choir song whether or not it sounds good. Give it a listen though. I'd wanted to write something akin to My Child is Gone (another song of lament HtH performed), but in an honest fashion - I am completely unable to write well from a perspective I don't have/haven't had, so it had to be from the point of view of the observer, not that of either the trafficked children or their relations.

Here are the words separate from the music - you may notice some Biblical references:"

Rachel is weeping, weeping for her children

And she will not be comforted, for they are no more

Taken into bondage, made captive and been sold,

Rachel is weeping, and will not be consoled

Oh, when have they caught my eye,

And I recoiled and hoped to pass them by?

In the cruel arms of Molech, crying tears of flame and salt,

Ah, Lord God, I told them that their wounds were not my fault

Rachel is weeping, weeping for her children, 

Taken in the evening, and cast into the night

Fodder for the brick kilns, soldiers for the war,

Toys for men of consequence to scatter on the floor

Oh, when have they caught my eye, And I recoiled and hoped to pass them by? In the cruel arms of Molech, crying tears of flame and salt, Ah, Lord God, I told them that their wounds were not my fault