¹ This motto appears in Psalm 46:2 and Psalm 62:9. Both the Hebrew source word “machaseh” and Luther’s rendering of it, “Zuversicht,” can mean “hope,” “trust,” “[source of] confidence,” and/or “refuge.”

² “Alle Enden” is a common biblical expression employed to express not “all ends/purposes” or the “end of all time” but “all ends of the [thought-to-be-flat] earth.”

³ “Wunderlich” is apparently employed here in its sense as a synonym for “seltsam/sonderbar” (“odd/strange”). This line draws on the language of Psalm 4:4, which in the Luther Bibles of Bach’s day reads “Erkennet doch, dass der HERR seine Heiligen wunderlich führt” (“But recognize that the LORD wondrously/strangely leads/conducts [the ways/doings of] his saints”); the Calov commentary Bible, which Bach owned, explains that “wunderlich führt” here means “durch wunderbare und unerforschliche Wege, die von unserer Wissenschaft fern abgesondert sein” (“by means of marvelous and inscrutable ways/paths that are far removed from our knowledge [and understanding]”).

⁴ “Jedennoch”—a combination not of “jeden” (“each”) and “noch” (“still/yet”), but of “je” (“ever”) and “dennoch” (“nevertheless”)—is an older-German synonym for “dennoch” and “jedoch.” The word “jedennoch” was generally not useful except in poetry when an extra syllable was needed.

⁵ “Fröhlich” is apparently being used here not in its typical sense of “Freude bei etwas empfindend” (“feeling joy in something”)—i.e., such that God is joyful in performing his actions—but in its less commonly encountered sense of “bei einem Betrachter freudige Stimmung hervorrufend” (“evoking a joyful mood in an observer”). Luther used “fröhlich” in this latter sense in his commentaries on the book of Zechariah, where he noted that “die weisse Farbe ist eine fröhliche Farbe, wie das Licht” (“the color white is a joy-inspiring color, like light”).

⁶ With regard to this being “God’s” (i.e., not “our”) purpose, see fn. 7, below.

⁷ The word “Vorsatz” is employed often in the Luther Bibles for God’s “ends/purposes,” and as such, the “der” in “der Vorsatz” (“the purpose”) should presumably be understood to refer not to “our intent/purpose” but to “God’s intent/purpose.”

⁸ The sense of this line is partly derived from Isaiah 49:16, “Siehe, in die Hände habe ich dich gezeichnet” (“Look, into the [palms of my] hands have I [God] engraved [the names of] you [Israel, my people, so that I will always be reminded of you]”). Lutheran commentary of Bach’s day interpreted this as a foreshadowing of Jesus’s metaphorically engraving the names of his people into the palms of his hands by dint of allowing himself to be nailed to the cross (i.e., as opposed to being bound with ropes).

⁹ Lines 4–5 draw on Psalm 32:8, which Luther understands as God’s declaring, “Ich will dich unterweisen, und dir den Weg zeigen, den du wandeln sollt; ich will dich mit meinen Augen leiten” (“I will instruct/teach you, and show you the way that you shall go; I will guide you with my eyes”).

¹⁰ Because the noun “Altar” is now grammatically masculine, this phrase in modern German would be not “an sein heiliges Altar” but “an seinen heiligen Altar” (which likewise means “to his holy altar”). In older German, “Altar” can be either neuter (accusative, “das Altar”) or masculine (accusative, “den Altar”).

¹¹ This line probably draws on Proverbs 4:11, “Ich will dich den Weg der Weisheit führen, ich will dich auf rechter Bahn leiten” (“I [God] will guide you along the path of wisdom, I will lead you on the right course [of life]”).

¹² In the biblical “promised land” of Canaan, Abram (who was later renamed “Abraham”) immediately built several altars to God, as narrated in Genesis 12:7-8; in this cantata the marriage altar (in German, “der Traualtar”) mentioned two lines later is apparently being likened to Abraham’s altars in Canaan.

¹³ The sense of this line is derived from Song of Songs 8:6, which in the Luther Bibles of Bach’s day reads “Liebe ist stark; … ihre Glut ist feurig und eine Flamme des HERRN” (“Love is strong; its fervor is fiery and a flame of the LORD”).

¹⁴ A stanza of “Nun bitten wir den Heiligen Geist.”

¹⁵ “Du angenehmes Paar” could simply mean “you pleasing/agreeable/charming pair.” But in religious discourse—e.g., as here, in wedding poetry that was designed for musical performance in a church service—the word “angenehm” was especially associated with God’s finding people or their offerings to be “acceptable/pleasing.”

¹⁶ “Eitel” had a variety of meanings in older German, including the senses of “rein” (“pure”) and “lauter” (“nothing but”).

¹⁷ The noun “Heil” has a wide variety of meanings in older German; in this libretto it is apparently used in its general sense of “Wohlstand” (“prosperity”).

¹⁸ This line is a slightly adapted quotation of Psalm 128:5, one of several biblical passages that was conventionally read at Lutheran wedding services in Bach’s day.

¹⁹ In traditional Christian interpretation, “Zion” is the name for the place where God dwells—formerly, in the Jerusalem temple, on Mount Zion. The name “Zion” was adopted (Hebrews 12:22, Revelation 14:1) for the Christian church, the place where God is said to dwell now that he has apparently rejected the (Jewish) temple.

²⁰ With regard to “Heil” as “prosperity,” see fn. 17, above.

²¹ Grammatically, strictly speaking, the possessive “sein” (“its”) here takes the neuter “das Auge” (“the eye”) as antecedent; but surely it is not only “das Auge” but also “die Brust” (feminine, “the breast”) that is meant to have its portion of contentment.

²² A stanza from “Wer nur den lieben Gott lässt walten,” but not in the wording typically associated with this cantata. Bach’s original performing parts that would have included the text for this movement are lost. In Bach’s composing score, which does survive, the movement is not provided with text. Modern editions give what is apparently a posthumous textual revision of the hymn stanza (it has not been found in any hymnals), a version entered into several related nineteenth-century manuscript copies of BWV 197.2: “So wandelt froh auf Gottes Wegen, / Und was ihr tut, das tut getreu! / Verdienet eures Gottes Segen, / Denn der ist alle Morgen neu; / Denn welcher seine Zuversicht / Auf Gott setzt, den verlässt er nicht” (“So walk happily on God’s paths; / And what you [Christians] do, do that faithfully. / Earn your God’s blessing / For it is new every morning. / For whoever places his hope / In God, / he [God] does not abandon him”). This version’s exhortation “Verdienet eures Gottes Segen” (“Earn God’s blessing”) will—or ought to—set off loud alarm bells to those who are familiar with Lutheran doctrine, as its counsel goes fundamentally against the very core and essence of Luther’s time-honored teachings that one cannot “earn” or “merit” divine blessing but may receive it only as an unmerited gift of God’s mercy and grace. The wording currently employed in editions, concerts, and recordings is extremely unlikely to be the text that Bach envisioned and performed. The version we give here, corresponding to the stanza as found in hymnals of Bach’s time, is far more likely to have been the one sung at the end of this cantata (it is what was sung in movement 7 of “Wer nur den lieben Gott lässt walten” BWV 93, and in movement 7 of “Siehe, ich will viel Fischer aussenden” BWV 88).

²³ This line echoes, a bit distantly, the sentiments of Lamentations 3:22-23, which in the Luther Bibles of Bach’s day reads “Die Güte des HERRN ists, dass wir nicht gar aus sind; seine Barmherzigkeit hat noch kein Ende, sondern sie ist alle Morgen neu, und deine Treue ist gross” (“It is [through] the goodness of the LORD that we are not completely done for; his mercifulness, if anything, has no end; but it is new every morning, and great is your [i.e., God’s] faithfulness”).