Reading 4—Спасибо, Иегова

Singing is an excellent way to improve your pronunciation and accent. This reading assignment is to learn the Russian version of We Thank You Jehovah, song number 46 from Sing out Joyfully to Jehovah. Use the links at right to open the Russian songbook and videos. Use the vocabulary below to figure out what the words mean.

The Title

The work used to say “thank you” in Russian is “спасибо”. Originally a contraction of “Спаси, Боже!”, “Save, O God!” but now used even when addressing God himself.

Verse One

чудный—marvelous, miraculous

свет—light

обучать—to be teaching, to be acting as an instructor; обучаешь—thou art teaching us

давать совет—to be giving counsel; даёшь совет—thou art giving us counsel

право—a right

молиться—to pray

просьба—a request

открывать—to open, to reveal

мольба—an entreaty

Verse Two

сын—son

послать (here in the past tense “послал”)—to send

над миром—over the the world. The world is “мир”.

одержать (here in the past tense “одержал”) победу—to seize victory, to take full possession of it

воля—will (in the sense of what someone wants)

открыть (here in the past tense “открыл”)—to open, to reveal

обет—a vow

исполнить—to fulfill, to carry out

сила—power, force

Verse Three

честь—the honor, honor

имя—name

носить—to carry, to bear

всем людям—to all humans

истина—truth, particularly important or exalted truth

говорить—to be talking

скоро—soon

всё горе—all woe

уйти—to depart on foot; уйдёт—he/she/it will depart on foot

царство—a/the kingdom

на веки—for the ages

мир—peace (not to be confused with its homonym “мир” in verse two which means “the world”)

Note: In the video with the children’s chorus the last two lines are slightly different. They sing the version from the 2009 songbook Sing to Jehovah in which We Thank You Jehovah is song number two.