Lauryn Hill: Oh Jerusalem

Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, JerusalemRealizing 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 try 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 insanityOh 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 the 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, thru my fa?ade, only materialOh Jerusalem, wash thine heart from wickedness, that thou mayest be saved from thy deception/How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee/Oh Jerusalem, keeping thee from perfection/Submit to truth, leave the deception of thy youth so we can walk in the council of authority/Forget the proof, a generation so aloof, only following the steps of the majority/Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not to thine own understanding/in all thy ways, acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy paths/Be not wise in thine own eyes orYou can't 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 than us/Infuriated 'cause he doesn't understand, bringing up those things we don't want to discuss/Wise to 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 alrightOh 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 would reveal the pride I'm hiding is what's stopping me/Oh Jerusalem, wash thine heart from wickedness that thou mayest be saved from thy deception/How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee, Oh Jerusalem, keeping them from perfection/Abide in me, and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except in the vine/I am the vine, ye are the branches/he that live in me, and I in Him the same bring forth much fruit/For without me you can do nothing, Oh Jerusalem/Your traditions have deceived you/I've chosen you, you haven't chosen me/that whatsoever you ask in my name He may give to you/But in vain they call my name, teaching doctrines just the same, justified amongst themselves/But God knoweth the heart/What man esteems 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 will ye die?/Oh Jerusalem, please tell me why?/I have no pleasure in the death of Him that dieth, says the Lord God wherefore turn yourselves and live/It's not the talkers, but the walkers in His word/Are the only ones the Father will forgive/Oh Jerusalem, wash thine heart from from wickedness, that thou mayest be saved from thy deception/How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee, Oh Jerusalem/Providing you no protection, Oh Jerusalem Oh.. ya.. oh.. Jerusalem oh.. ya.. oh