Act 3 · Track 25

Hear Ye Him

The destruction, the three days of darkness, the voice in the dark, the Father naming his Son, and a man in a white robe descending out of the sky.

pov

a husband and wife together, alternating and harmonizing

genre

Cinematic Sacred Orchestral

scripture

3 Nephi 8–11

Lyrics

Verse 1

The morning of the fourth day

I went to draw the water as I had a thousand times

And the sky was where it had always been

Then the wind changed and the birds went still

And I knew the day had come we had waited to fulfill

Verse 2

I knew because the man on the wall had said it would be so

I knew because I had said yes a long time ago

And the waiting we had carried was finally on its way

Pre-Destruction

The storm came first, a storm we had never seen

The clouds split open with a fire bright and mean

The earth began to shake and would not be still

The fire from heaven did not burn the buildings

It burned the ones inside them

Destruction

For three hours

The world ended

The one beside me held my hand at the door

And our house did not fall

Bridge

And then the storm stopped

And the earth stopped moving

And the darkness came

Darkness

Three days we could not light a candle's flame

Three days we could not see the face of the one beside us

I held the one beside me in the dark

We could only hear each other weep

The Voice

And then we heard him

I will not tell you what he said

The words are written in the record

But I will tell you what it felt like

It felt like being known

It felt like sitting in a dark room with a father

And realizing he had been there all along

Verse 3

And then the sun came up

And we walked out into the morning glow

And the city was not the city we used to know

The hills had moved, the river had moved

Pre-Temple

We gathered at the temple

What was left of our line

We talked about the day we had survived

The day the prophecies arrived

The Father's Voice

And then we heard another voice

It took us three times to understand

But the third time it said

Behold my Beloved Son

In whom I am well pleased

Hear ye him

Descent

And we looked up

And we saw him

A man in a white robe descending out of the sky

Coming down to where we stood

The man the prophet had promised on the wall

The man whose voice we had heard in the dark

The man we had been waiting for

He was coming down

Outro

He was coming down

He was —

Behind the Song

The album’s biggest single event

The destruction at Christ’s death, the three days of darkness, the voice in the dark, the Father naming his Son, and the descent of Christ in a white robe — all in one song. The arc the entire album has been building toward since the opening track. The song earns its scale because the events genuinely require it. No other song on the record carries this much narrative weight.

A husband and wife together

Act III’s first song was the wife alone on her floor saying yes. This song is the same couple together at the temple, watching the prophecy fulfilled. The voices alternate and harmonize across the destruction and the descent. The structural meaning matters: the moment Christ arrives is too big for one voice. It belongs to everyone who survived the dark.

I will not tell you what he said

Christ’s words from the heavens during the darkness are quoted in 3 Nephi 9. The song deliberately does not quote them. The narrator says only that the words are written in the record, then describes the experience of hearing the voice: like being known, like sitting in a dark room with a father, like realizing he had been there all along. The song sends the listener to the scripture for the words. It keeps the experience for itself.

It took us three times to understand

Scripture says the Father’s voice was heard three times before the people comprehended it. The first two times they could not understand it. The song compresses this into a single line that honors the strange detail — that God’s voice was not immediately legible, that the survivors had to open their ears and hearts before they could hear what was being said. Even the divine declaration required preparation.

He was coming down. He was —

The song ends mid-line. The descent is interrupted before Christ lands. The album has been promising his arrival since the first track. The song refuses to deliver it here. The listener has to walk into the next song to see him stand among the people. The structural choice is the hardest in Act III: the One we have waited for is almost here, but not yet.