The Man Comes Around

• Johnny Cash
• American IV The Man Comes Around

And I heard, as it were, the noise of thunder

One of the four beasts saying, “Come and see”

And I saw, and behold a white horse

There’s a man going around taking names

And he decides who to free and who to blame

Everybody won’t be treated all the same

There will be a golden ladder reaching down

When the man comes around

The hairs on your arm will stand up

At the terror in each sip and in each sup

Will you partake of that last offered cup?

Or disappear into the potter’s ground?

When the man comes around

Hear the trumpets, hear the pipers

One hundred million angels singing

Multitudes are marching to the big kettledrum

Voices calling and voices crying

Some are born and some are dying

It’s Alpha and Omega’s kingdom come

And the whirlwind is in the thorn tree

The virgins are all trimming their wicks

The whirlwind is in the thorn tree

It’s hard for thee to kick against the pricks

‘Til Armageddon, no shalam, no shalom

Then the father hen will call his chickens home

The wise man will bow down before the throne

And at his feet, they’ll cast the golden crowns

When the man comes around

Whoever is unjust, let him be unjust still

Whoever is righteous, let him be righteous still

Whoever is filthy, let him be filthy still

Listen to the words long written down

When the man comes around

In measured hundredweight and penny pound

When the man comes around

And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts

And I looked and behold, a pale horse

And his name that sat on him was Death

And Hell followed with him