שַׁחַר אֲבַקֶּשְׁךָ צוּרִי וּמִשְׂגַּבִּי | Shaḥar Avaqeshkha Tsuri u-Misgabi (Unto thy Rock, my soul, uplift thy gaze) — a piyyut by Shlomo ibn Gabirol (rhyming English adaptation by Alice Lucas, 1898)

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11 April 2026 under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 International copyleft license

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Parashat Matōt

Tags:

11th century C.E., 49th century A.M., Needing source text, פיוטים piyyuṭim, rhyming translation, שחר אבקשך Shaḥar Avaqeshkha

Source (Hebrew)	Translation (English)
וּזְכֹר אֶת־בּוֹרְאֶיךָ בִּימֵי בְּחוּרֹתֶיךָ עַד אֲשֶׁר לֹא־יָבֹאוּ יְמֵי הָרָעָה וְהִגִּיעוּ שָׁנִים אֲשֶׁר תֹּאמַר אֵין־לִי בָהֶם חֵפֶץ׃ (קהלת יב:א) וְיָשֹׁב הֶעָפָר עַל־הָאָרֶץ כְּשֶׁהָיָה וְהָרוּחַ תָּשׁוּב אֶל־הָאֱלֹהִים אֲשֶׁר נְתָנָהּ׃ (קהלת יב:ז)	Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shall say, ‘I have no pleasure in them’… (Ecclesiastes 12:1) Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was; and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it. (Ecclesiastes 12:7)
	Prayer
שַׁחַר אֲבַקֶּשְׁךָ צוּרִי וּמִשְׂגַּבִּי אֶעְרֹךְ לְפָנֶיךָ שַׁחְרִי וְגַם עַרְבִּי לִפְנֵי גְדֻלָּתָךְ אֶעְמֹד וְאֶבָּהֵל כִּי עֵינְךָ תִרְאֶה כָּל מַחְשְׁבוֹת לִבִּי מַה זֶּה אֲשֶׁר יוּכַל הַלֵּב וְהַלָּשׁוֹן לַעְשׂוֹת וּמַה כֹּחַ רוּחִי בְתוֹךְ קִרְבִּי הִנֵּה לְךָ תִיטַב זִמְרַת אֱנוֹשׁ עַל כֵּן אוֹדָךְ בְּעוֹד תִּהְיֶה נִשְׁמַת אֱלוֹהַּ בִּי.	Unto thy Rock, my soul, uplift thy gaze, His loving-kindness day and night implore. Remember thy Creator in the days Of youth, in song His glorious name adore. He is thy portion through earth’s troubled maze, Thy shelter, when life’s pilgrimage is o’er. Thou knowest that there waits for thee always A peaceful resting-place His throne before. Therefore the Lord my God I bless and praise, Even as all creatures bless Him evermore.

“Prayer” for Sabbath—ⅩⅬⅢ is Alice Lucas’s English verse adaptation of the piyyut “Shaḥar Avaqeshkha Tsuri u-Misgabi” by Shlomo ibn Gabirol, published in her The Jewish Year: A Collection of Devotional Poems for Sabbaths and Holidays throughout the Year (1898), page 97. This “43rd” prayer likely corresponds to the Shabbat in which parashat Matot is read, based on the preceding and succeeding prayers offered by Lucas in The Jewish Year. Many thanks to Asaf Bartov of Project Ben Yehuda for identifying the original piyyut.

Source(s)

the Ben Yehuda Project (transcription)

Founded in 1999, the Ben Yehuda Project digitally transcribes Hebrew works in the Public Domain.

Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

Aharon Varady (M.A.J.Ed./JTSA Davidson) is a volunteer transcriber for the Open Siddur Project. If you find any mistakes in his transcriptions, please let him know. Shgiyot mi yavin; Ministarot naqeni שְׁגִיאוֹת מִי־יָבִין; מִנִּסְתָּרוֹת נַקֵּנִי "Who can know all one's flaws? From hidden errors, correct me" (Psalms 19:13). If you'd like to directly support his work, please consider donating via his Patreon account. (Varady also translates prayers and contributes his own original work besides serving as the primary shammes of the Open Siddur Project and its website, opensiddur.org.)

Alice Montefiore Lucas (translation)

Alice Julia Lucas (née Montefiore) (2 August 1851 – 25 March 1935) was a British Jewish poet, translator, and communal worker. Alice Julia Montefiore was born in 1851, the elder daughter of Nathaniel M. Montefiore and Emma Goldsmid. Alongside her brother Claude Montefiore, she studied Judaism under Solomon Schechter at the Hochschule in Berlin. On 24 April 1873 she married barrister Henry Lucas, who later served as treasurer and vice-president of the United Synagogue. In 1900 she helped establish the Jewish Study Society, modelled after the Council of Jewish Women, of which she served as the first president. Lucas also sat on the women's committee of the Westminster Jews' Free School and its preparatory nursery, the Jews' Infant School.

Shlomo ibn Gabirol

Shlomo ibn Gabirol (also Solomon ben Judah; Hebrew: שלמה בן יהודה אבן גבירול‎, Arabic: أبو أيوب سليمان بن يحيى بن جبيرول‎ Abu Ayyub Sulayman bin Yahya bin Jabirul, Latin: Avicebron or Avencebrol; 1021/22-1058), born in Malaga, Spain was an Andalusian poet and Jewish philosopher. He published over a hundred poems, as well as works of biblical exegesis, philosophy, ethics, and satire.

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ויהי נעם אדני אלהינו עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננה עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננהו׃ (תהלים צ:יז) · "May the pleasantness of אדֹני our elo’ah be upon us; may our handiwork be established for us — our handiwork, may it be established." (Psalms 90:17)