Noel

Hillsong Young & Free's version keeps the traditional English carol's structure and language almost entirely untouched, opening with the scene rather than a chorus: "the first noel the angels did say was to certain poor shepherds in fields as they lay." Nothing about the wording gets modernized to fit a younger audience.

The star gets its own verse before the shepherds ever move: "they looked up and saw a star shining in the east, beyond them far... and to the earth it gave great light." The carol lingers on the sign before it lingers on the response to it.

Luke's account of an angel appearing to shepherds keeping watch over their flock by night, and Matthew's account of magi who saw his star in the east, both sit behind the carol's two central images. The repeated word "noel" itself, French for "birth," carries the entire announcement by the time the final line names exactly who was born: "the King of Israel."