Words and Music From Wikipedia: Let all mortal flesh keep silence (Greek: Σιγησάτω πᾶσα σάρξ βροτεία), also known as Let all mortal flesh keep silent, is an ancient chant of Eucharistic devotion based on words from Habakkuk 2:20, "Let all the earth keep silence before him" (Hebrew: הַ֥ס מִפָּנָ֖יו כָּל־הָאָֽרֶץ‎‎ has mippanaw kol ha-erets). The original was composed in Greek as a Cherubic Hymn for the Offertory of the Divine Liturgy of St James;[1] it probably antedates the rest of the liturgy and goes back at least to AD 275, with local churches adopting arrangements in Syriac. In modern times, the Ralph Vaughan Williams arrangement of a translation from the Greek by Gerard Moultrie to the tune of "Picardy", a French medieval folk melody, popularized the hymn among other Christian congregations.

The Moultrie translation is written in 87.87 Trochaic meter. Therefore, winged in the first line of the fourth stanza is intended to be read or sung as a single syllable. However, the two-syllable variant wingèd has become commonly accepted, especially outside of the United Kingdom, because the melody otherwise requires a potentially awkward melisma of the first syllable of winged.