¹ “Sonst” here is apparently being used in its sense as an archaic synonym for “ehedem” (“in former times,” “formerly”).

² This line is a variation on Psalm 23:4, which in the Luther Bibles of Bach’s day reads “Und ob ich schon wanderte im finstern Tal, fürchte ich kein Unglück” (“And though I might roam in the dark valley, I [will] fear no misfortune”). The Hebrew word underlying Luther’s “finster” can mean “death-like shadow,” or “deep/dark shadow.”

³ The language of these lines is derived from Psalm 119:133, “Lass meinen Gang gewiss sein in deinem Wort” (“Let my [earthly-life’s] course be certain in your word”).

⁴ The language of this line is derived from John 12:32, “Und ich, wenn ich erhöht werde von der Erde, so will ich sie alle zu mir ziehen” (“And I [Jesus], if I may be lifted up from the earth [to the beam of the cross], then will I [as a spiritual magnet] draw all them [that are believers] to me”).

⁵ The sense of this line draws on 1 Corinthians 15:26, “Der letzte Feind, der aufgehaben wird, ist der Tod” (“The last enemy that will be annihilated is death”).

⁶ See fn. 2, above.

⁷ 1 Corinthians 15:51-52 proclaims that people’s bodies will come out of the grave, transformed, at the end time, when they will stand before Jesus or God the father, who according to many New Testament passages will then judge all of humanity. This line in the cantata draws specifically on Philippians 3:21, which in the idiosyncratic rendering of the Luther Bibles of Bach’s day reads “welcher unsern nichtigen Leib verklären wird, dass er ähnlich werde seinem verklärten Leibe” (“. . .[Christ,] who will transfigure our transitory [earthly] body [after death], so that it might be similar to his [Christ’s] transfigured [heavenly] body”). Note that “nichtig” can mean “vain” or “worthless” or “insubstantial,” but here it seems to mean “ephemeral” or “transitory,” i.e., a synonym for “flüchtig” (“fleeting”); a leading eighteenth-century dictionary gives as one of the definitions of nichtig: “Keine Dauer habend, vergänglich. Der nichtige Leib, Phil. 3, 21. Ach wie nichtig, ach wie flüchtig u.s.f.” (“Not lasting; ephemeral. The transitory body, Philippians 3:21. ‘Ah, how transitory, ah, how fleeting,’ etc. [in the hymn of that name]”).

⁸ In this movement, Christians, who are “blessed” (with eternal salvation), are probably meant to be compared specifically to the godless, who can be “glückselig” (“blissful”) on earth, according to Psalm 73:12, which in the Luther Bibles of Bach’s day reads “Siehe, das sind die Gottlosen: die sind glückselig in der Welt, und werden reich” (“Look, these are the godless: they are blissful/carefree in the world, and become rich”).

⁹ This line apparently paraphrases an expression in John 16:24, “ . . . dass eure Freude vollkommen sei” (“ . . . so that your joy may be full”), replacing the two-syllable “Freude” (“joy”) with the (admittedly different but related) three-syllable “Vergnügen” (“contentment”).

¹⁰ That is, chosen for eternal salvation.

¹¹ See fn. 10, above.

¹² Lutheran writers spoke of God’s living in people’s hearts. But they also spoke of Jesus’s heart as the “Wohnung” (“dwelling place”) of the Christian believer, and of living in Jesus’s heart as a metaphor for living in heaven.

¹³ In Psalm 107:10, some of God’s people had been “gefangen im Zwang und Eisen” (“imprisoned [by enemies] in coercion and iron [bonds]”) but were redeemed, in verse 14, when God “ihre Bande zerriss” (“broke apart their bonds”).

¹⁴ Jesus, like King David of Israel, is God’s messiah (“anointed one”).

¹⁵ This line alludes to a verse from the gospel portion that was chanted at the liturgical occasion for which this cantata was designed, John 10:9, which in the Luther Bibles of Bach’s day reads “Ich bin die Tür; so jemand durch mich eingeht, der wird selig werden, und wird ein und ausgehen und Weide finden” (“I [Jesus] am the door; if anyone enters by me, he will be blessed [with eternal life], and will enter and exit, and find [the] pasturage/food [that God provides for the soul]”).

¹⁶ See fn. 9, above.

¹⁷ The sense of this line is derived from 1 Peter 5:4, “ . . . werdet ihr, wenn erscheinen wird der Erzhirte, die unverwelkliche Krone der Ehren empfangen” (“ . . . when the Chief Shepherd [Jesus] will appear [at the end time], you [members of his flock] will receive the never-withering crown of honor [the crown of eternal life]”). This type of “crown” is a plaited victory wreath of laurel, olive, or ivy that otherwise (i.e., in natural circumstances) would wither.

¹⁸ “Die güldne Zeit” in this instance is apparently a variation on “die angenehme Zeit” of 2 Corinthians 6:2, which in the Luther Bibles of Bach’s day reads “Jetzt ist die angenehme Zeit, jetzt ist der Tag des Heils” (“Now is the acceptable/propitious time [of mercy/grace], now is the day of salvation [in Jesus]”). Luther described the “angenehme Zeit” as a Hebraism referring to God’s “Evangelische Zeit” (“time of the gospel”), marked by forgiveness and mercy in Jesus. The Luther Bibles of Bach’s day, for example, render Psalm 69:14 as “Ich aber bete, HERR, zu dir zur angenehmen Zeit” (“But I pray, Lord, to you at the acceptable/propitious time [of mercy/grace in Christ]”).

¹⁹ “Sich an/zu jemanden gewöhnen” would, on the face of it, seem simply to mean “to get/grow accustomed to someone” or “to accustom oneself to someone.” To speak in this manner about Jesus, however, may sound linguistically and theologically clumsy. In older German, the verb “gewöhnen” was also used as a synonym for “abrichten” in the sense of “to train.” Perhaps, then, “sich zu Jesum gewöhnen” should be understood as “to orient oneself to Jesus”—i.e., to grow accustomed to being trained in the ways of Jesus, such that “sich gewöhnen” would be taken as a synonym for “sich ausrichten” in the sense of “to orient oneself.”

²⁰ A stanza of “O Herre Gott, dein göttlich Wort.”

²¹ See fn. 22, below.

²² “Bereit” here is an older German form of “bereits” (“already”). The sense of this line is derived from John 3:18, “Wer an ihn glaubt, der wird nicht gerichtet; wer aber nicht glaubt, der ist schon gerichtet” (“Whoever believes in him [in Jesus], he will not be condemned; but whoever does not believe, he is already condemned [i.e., will not see eternal life/salvation]”).

²³ Some modern editions here read “heilsam” (“wholesome”). Bach’s own performing materials and the surviving text booklets that were made available to congregants at performances of this cantata (in 1727 and 1731) read “heilig” (“holy”).

²⁴ Modern editions give this adjective with a lowercase “a,” but the original sources sources give an uppercase “A,” presumably for the interpretive reasons suggested in fn. 28, below.

²⁵ “Lassen einem etwas” is apparently used here as a synonym for “überlassen einem etwas” in the sense of “to part with something and let someone have/take this thing.”

²⁶ The meaning of this line is not entirely clear in the absence of recognizing its biblical origin. Psalm 119:41-43 reads “HERR, lass mir deine Gnade widerfahren, deine Hilfe nach deinem Wort, . . . und nimm ja nicht von meinem Munde das Wort der Wahrheit” (“LORD, let your mercy/grace befall me, let your salvation befall me according to your word, . . . and do not take the word of truth, indeed, out of my mouth”).

²⁷ That is, God the son (Jesus). In the next line, the work of his hands is, strictly speaking, taken to be the work of God the father, “the Almighty.” See fn. 28, below.

²⁸ The somewhat unusual expression “Allmachtsvolle Händen” (i.e., with an uppercase “A”) suggests the meaning “Almighty [divine] hands” rather than simply “almighty [all-powerful] hands” or “omnipotence-filled hands.” Strictly speaking, “Allmachtsvolle” in English would be “Almightiful,” not “Almighty”; but “almightiful” is now obselete usage, and “Almightiful” has the additional disadvantage of perhaps too readily being misconstrued as jocular. The much more usual German expression in Bach’s day for “allmachtsvolle” (“almightiful”) was “allmächtige” (“almighty”), which has the same number of syllables but the wrong accents for this cantata line (“all-MÄCH-ti-ge” versus “ALL-machts-VOL-le”). God the father is many times called “the Almighty” in the book of Revelation. See also fnn. 26 and 27, above.

²⁹ “Wende” is a subjunctive form of the verb, but it may have been employed simply for its rhyme with “Hände” and not for its actual mood; i.e., perhaps it should be read as indicative, “wende[t]”—compare this line with the similar expression in lines 6–9 of the first movement, “Gott, der unsern Gang zum rechten Wege wendet” (“God, who will turn our course to the right way”). On the other hand, perhaps “wende” here is meant to have double signification (“may/will turn”).

³⁰ See fn. 3, above.