GENERAL NOTE: This libretto borrows language and narrative elements from the Song of Songs, where the young woman looks for her beloved (drawn upon allegorically in the libretto, as the Christian soul seeking its "bridegroom," Jesus), and from the gospel of Luke, where Mary and Joseph, the parents of Jesus, look for the boy Jesus, who is missing when it is time to go home after the pilgrimage festival of Passover in Jerusalem (likewise drawn upon allegorically in the libretto—hence Bach’s musical setting of the second movement is for bass, to convey the voice of the adult Christ, rather than for a boy soprano, which is what would have been required for a literal setting). The original printed libretto features only movement 1–5; it is unclear who added the hymn stanza that Bach set as movement 6.

¹ Some modern editions have mistranscribed this line as “Und nicht ferner bei mir führen” (“and not lead you with me further”).

² In the Luther Bibles, “mein Hort” (“my refuge”), frequently applied to God, is a common, figurative rendering of what is typically translated from the Hebrew more literally in English Bibles as “my rock.”

³ This text is nearly identical to Luke 2:49, where Jesus says “Was ists, dass ihr mich gesucht habt? Wisset ihr nicht, dass ich sein muss in dem, das meines Vaters ist?” (“Why is it that you [plural] have sought me [elsewhere]? Do you [plural] not know that I must be [here, in the Temple, engaged] in that which is of [God] my father?”).

⁴ This movement derives some of its key language from John 14:2, where (in Luther’s rendering) Jesus says to his disciples, “In meines Vaters Hause sind viel Wohnungen; wenns nicht so wäre, so wollte ich zu euch sagen: Ich gehe hin, euch die Stätte zu bereiten” (“In [God] my father’s house [in heaven] are many dwellings; if it were not so, then [why] would I have said to you: I am going there, to prepare the places for you”). The original printing of this libretto, in 1711, reads “in meines Vaters Städte,” a variant spelling of “Stätte” rather than a plural (“in my father’s cities”).

⁵ These lines are a poetic paraphrase that is nearly identical to Psalm 84:2-3, which in the Luther Bibles of Bach’s day reads “Wie lieblich sind deine Wohnungen, Herr Zebaoth! Meine Seele verlanget und sehnet sich nach den Vorhöfen des Herrn; mein Leib und Seel freuen sich in dem lebendigen Gott” (“How lovely are your dwellings, Lord [whose name is] Sabaoth! My soul desires and pines for the forecourts [of the Temple] of the Lord; my body and soul rejoice in the living God”).

⁶ Some modern editions and the original printing of this libretto here read “nun” (“now”), but Bach’s own score and performing part clearly read “nur,” though the intended meaning is far from clear.

⁷ “Erdentand” is the German equivalent of the Latin “vanitas vitae,” the vanity of human life on earth.

⁸ Depending on context, “Herr Zebaoth” could mean “Lord of [army] hosts,” or “Lord [whose name is] ‘Sabaoth’,” or “[God, whose name is] ‘Lord of [Army] Hosts’,” or “[God, whose name is] ‘Lord Sabaoth’.” In Jeremiah 32:18, the prophet says to God, “du grosser und starker Gott, Herr Zebaoth ist dein Name” (“you great and mighty God, ‘Lord Sabaoth’ is your name”).

⁹ See fn. 5, above.

¹⁰ “Babel” is the Hebrew name for “Babylon” (from the Akkadian for “the gate of the god”). The contrast implied here is between this evil temporal earthly city of “Babylon” and the good eternal heavenly city of “Jerusalem.” The book of Revelation continually refers to Rome as a “Babylon,” as its author took pagan Rome’s hostile attitude toward the followers of Jesus to be like Babel’s toward the Israelites in the Hebrew Bible. The Lutheranism of Bach’s day applied this sentiment additionally to the “Babylon” it called “the kingdom of the Antichrist,” namely the Roman Catholic church.

¹¹ A stanza of “Weg, mein Herz, mit den Gedanken.”

¹² This is often translated as if only the “ich” of line 6 carries over to line 8, yielding the sense “that I may be grieved no more.” But it is the “ich dich” that carries over, yielding the sense “that I may aggrieve you no more.” The language of line 8 is apparently derived from Sirach 3:14, “betrübe ihn ja nicht” (literally, “grieve him [your father], yes, not”), and Ephesians 4:30, “Betrübet nicht den Heiligen Geist Gottes” (“do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God”).