Do you have a reliable source for this text? It's not familiar to me at all. Did you hear it or read it?

Both 'smailed' and 'miry' seem dubious, and 'till' could even be a German mistake for 'bis.'

Hier http://www.gugalyrics.com/ACAPPELLA-RIDE-THE-... hab ich was gefunden:

...
Well I never will forget that day (what a day, my Lord)
When all my sins were taken away (how he washed it white as snow)
My feet were snatched from the miry clay (I'm a changed man, I'm a new life)
And I'm gonna serve him till that judgment day (hey, come on) ...

Meine Füße wurden aus dem sumpfigen Schlamm gezogen,
und ich werde ihm bis zum Jüngsten Gericht dienen.

Nun gibt es ja bei Spirituals durchaus sehr verschieden Textüberlieferungen, aber so ist es in sich stimmig.

Here we go: http://www.higherpraise.com/lyrics/love/love0... . . .

This source has that line as: 'My feet were snatched from the miry clay' . . .

Meine Füße wurden dem nassen Lehm entrissen . . .

Alles klar, danny ? . . .

Much better.

In that case 'day' looks like a scanner error for 'clay,' so maybe 'smailed' is a less obvious scanner error for 'snatched.'

Ah Daddy, danke! LEHM natürlich.

Never can forget that day - ride - when all my sins where taken away.
Feet were *smailed* from that miry day - ride - I'll see my Lord till judgment day.

"Feet were *smailed* from that miry *day*"
most probably a transcription or scanner error
all other sources show:

"My feet were snatched from the miry clay"

Thanks to everybody!
@ hm -us; @ daddy; @ wupperwolf

further research has proven you right. You're guess that it's a scanner error is the only reasonable explanation.

The source didn't seem dubious at all: Proper Sheet Music!
BTW: neither "miry" (from "mire"), nor "till..." is dubious!
As for "smailed": I just thought it was an obscure case of AAVE.
But my guess that it's something to do with "ail"/"ailment" has turned out to be too fare fetched.

Thanks again

Hm...
-> my guess that it's something to do with "ail"/"ailment" has turned out to be too FAR fetched.

Well, yes, both 'miry' and 'till' are certainly words. But they were absolutely wrong in context in the corrupt text you gave. 'I'll see my Lord till judgment day' still doesn't make sense at all, by the way, so please don't imagine it is correct just because the words all exist. Get the whole text from a better source.

Many commercial sheet-music sources on the internet are pretty dubious. If this is an example of the quality of the one you tried, I would certainly not use that website again, and I would not sing any arrangement from that source without playing through it and looking for wrong notes.

No idea what you mean by AAVE.

i know nothing about it - but perhaps the old feet of clay man is formed from mud/clay

I never can forget that day
Ride in the chariot to see my Lord
My feet were snatched from the miry clay
Ride in the chariot to see my Lord

@hm -- us

AAVE = African American Vernacular English