History section below) that was otherwise much closer to Pantycelyn's original Welsh text. History William Williams Pantycelyn (named, in the Welsh style, "Pantycelyn" after the farm which his wife inherited) is generally acknowledged as the greatest Welsh hymnwriter. The Welsh original of this hymn was first published as Hymn 10 in (Sea of Glass) in 1762. It comprised six verses. (References to a five verse version in Pantycelyn's Alleluia of 1745 appear to be incorrect.) It was originally titled (Prayer for strength for the journey through the world's wilderness). Peter Williams (1722–1796) translated part of the hymn into the English version given above, with the title Prayer for Strength. It was published in Hymns on various subjects, 1771. This translation is the only Welsh hymn to have gained widespread circulation in the English-speaking world. The present-day Welsh version, given above, is essentially a redaction of the original to parallel Peter Williams's English version. A result of the translation process is that the now-familiar phrase "Bread of heaven" does not actually occur in the original; it is a paraphrase of the references to manna. The Welsh word corresponds more-or-less to the English Lord, in all its senses. It appears in the Old Testament to translate Hebrew words which are a paraphrase of the Divine Name (the tetragrammaton), and in the New Testament to translate , the standard honorific for Jesus Christ. Accordingly, Peter Williams translated it as Jehovah in accord with the practice of his time. Many English-language hymnals today translate it as "Redeemer". The following version of the original is taken from Gwaith Pantycelyn (The Works of Pantycelyn). All but the second verse is given, with minor variations, in the Welsh Hymnbook of the Calvinist and Wesleyan Methodists, published by the assemblies of the two churches. (The variations are mainly to update the language, e.g. in verse 1 (elided to ), meaning "in [me]", has become in more modern Welsh.) Meanings The hymn describes the experience of God's people in their travel through the wilderness from the escape from slavery in Egypt (Exodus 12–14), being guided by a cloud by day and a fire by night (Exodus 13:17–22) to their final arrival forty years later in the land of Canaan (Joshua 3). During this time their needs were supplied by God, including the daily supply of manna (Exodus 16). The hymn text forms an allegory for the journey of a