Lyrics
Behold that star! Behold that star up yonder,
Behold that star! It is the star of Bethlehem.
There was a star in the East, and the wise men followed the star,
Behold that star! It is the star of Bethlehem.
It gleams tonight in Bethlehem, and shepherds followed its light,
Behold that star! It is the star of Bethlehem.
Public domain hymn text. Traditional African American spiritual, author unknown.
The Story Behind the Hymn
'Behold That Star' is a traditional African American Christmas spiritual with no known single author, developed within Southern Black church communities and sung as part of the wider tradition of spirituals marking the Nativity, alongside songs like 'Go Tell It on the Mountain' and 'Rise Up, Shepherd, and Follow.'
Its subject is drawn from Matthew 2, which describes the star that guided the Magi to the infant Jesus in Bethlehem, a story that, unlike many Gospel accounts, centers on a single, visible, external sign rather than a private spiritual experience.
The song's structure returns again and again to the same short command, 'behold that star,' treating the star less as a historical detail to be explained than as an ongoing invitation, something the listener is being urged to notice and look toward even now.
That present-tense quality, describing the star as gleaming 'tonight' rather than only in the past, gives the song an unusually immediate quality among Nativity spirituals, collapsing the distance between the original Christmas story and the moment of singing.
Its repeated structure, adding a new detail about the wise men or the shepherds in each verse while keeping the same 'behold that star' refrain, follows a common pattern in spirituals meant for communal singing, where new verses could be added freely around a fixed, familiar center.
The song found a lasting place in Christmas concert and choral repertoires alongside other traditional spirituals, valued for the plain, wondering tone it brings to a story more often told through formally composed carols rather than through this looser, communal spiritual style.
Its lasting appeal lies in that same directness: rather than explaining the star's theological significance at length, it simply keeps pointing back to it, verse after verse, letting repeated attention stand in for explanation.
