Lauryn Hill - Oh Jerusalem lyrics

Oh Jerusalem oh Jerusalem
Oh Jerusalem oh Jerusalem

Realizing that there's no place else to go
And there's nobody I know who can help me
Textbook solutions are so improbable
Cause everybody else is just as empty
Naked as the day that I was born
I tried to hide
Behind education and philosophy
Hopeless explanation to describe a situation
I can't see because the world's on top of me

Oh wretched man that I am
Who will deliver me
From the body of this death?
Freeing me from dust
And the superficial trust
Of an enemy that seeks to take my breath
Failing to connect cause I'm morally defect
By reason of the God inside my head


Causing me to see only what pertains to me
Believing I'm alive when I'm still dead

Limited to earth, unable to find out my worth
Cause I can't see past my own vanity
If I'm not included
Then I just have to remove it
From my mind because it has to be insanity
Oh wretched man that I am
Who will deliver me
From the body of this death?

Can I even factor
That I've only been an actor
In this staged interpretation of this day
Focused on the shadow
With my back turned to the light
Too intelligent to see it's me in the way
What a paradox, having God trapped in a box
All this time professing to be spiritual
Naturally pretending
That I'm actually defending
God through my facade, don't need material

Oh Jerusalem, wash thy heart from wickedness
That thou mayest be saved from thy deception
How long shall thy faith
Lodge lies within thee?
Oh Jerusalem, keeping thee from perfection

Submit to truth
Leave the deception of thy youth
So we could walk in the council of authority
Forget the proof, our generation so aloof
Only follow in the steps of the majority
Trust in the Lord with all thy heart
And lay not to thine
Oh an understanding in all thy ways
Acknowledge Him
And He shall direct our paths
Be not wise in thine own eyes
And you can follow him we judge and condemn
Just as ignorant as them
Who religion tells us that we should ignore
Perpetrating we're in covenant with Him
Exposed by the very things that we adore

We grin and shake hands
Then lay ambush for the man
Who has a different point of view then us
Infuriated cause he doesn't understand
Bringing up those things we
Don't want to discuss why still do evil
We don't know how to do good
Walking on in darkness running from the light
Led to believe
Because we live in neighborhoods
Telling us what's going on will be alright
Oh so repressed
So convinced that I was blessed
When I played with my game of Monopoly
Oh to suggest, that my life is still a mess
Who reveal the pride I'm hiding
Is what's stopping me

Oh Jerusalem, wash thy heart from wickedness
That thou mayest be saved from thy deception
How long shall thy faith
Lodge lies within thee?
Oh Jerusalem, keeping thee from perfection

Abide in me and I in you
As the branch cannot bear
Fruit of it'self except in the vine
I am the vine, ye are the branches
He that lives in me
And I in him, the same bring forth much fruit
Without me, you can do nothing oh Jerusalem
You're traditions have deceived you
I've chosen you, you haven't chosen me
Do whatsoever
You asking my name he may give to you
But in vain they call my name
Teaching doctrines just the same
Justified among themselves
But God know with the heart
What man esteemed as smart
Is an abomination to Emmanuel

Just repent, turn from selfish motivation
So iniquity will not cause your demise
Make you a new heart and a new spirit
For why would he die? Oh Jerusalem
Please tell me why
I have no pleasure in the death of him to die
Says the Lord God where forth
Turn yourselves and live
It's not the talkers
But the walkers and His Word
Are the only ones the Father will forgive

Oh Jerusalem, wash thy heart from wickedness
That thou mayest be saved from thy deception
How long shall thy faith
Lodge lies within thee?
Oh Jerusalem, keeping thee from perfection

Oh Jerusalem