¹ As related in Matthew 8:23-27, which was the gospel portion chanted at the liturgical occasion that this cantata was designed for.

² Some modern editions emend this to “bleibest” (“remain”).

³ Some modern editions emend lines 6–8 to “Du wiesest ja mit einem Sterne / Vormals die neubekehrten Weisen, / Den rechten Weg zu reisen” (“Indeed, in former times you showed, with a star, / The newly converted Wise Men / The right path to travel”).

⁴ Lines 1–2 are a nearly verbatim quotation of Luther’s rendering of Psalm 10:1, “Herr, warum trittest du so ferne? Verbirgst dich zur Zeit der Not?” (“Lord, why do you tread so far off? Do [you] conceal yourself at the time of my need?”).

⁵ As related in Matthew 2:1-12.

⁶ In Luther’s rendering of Psalm 32:8, God declares “Ich will dich mit meinen Augen leiten” (“[On the path you are to go,] I will lead you with my eyes”).

⁷ As proclaimed in Matthew 7:14, “die Pforte ist eng, und der Weg ist schmal, der zum Leben führt” (“the gate is narrow and the [earthly] path is strait [or, ‘constricted’] that leads to [eternal] life”).

⁸ The notion of “standing (water) waves” has wrongly struck some modern editors as scientifically impossible, and therefore they have emended this line from “Ein Christ soll zwar wie Wellen stehn” (“A Christian is indeed to stand like waves”) to “Ein Christ soll zwar wie Felsen stehn” (“A Christian is indeed to stand like rocks”). In any event, for the biblical logic concerning inert brook, river, or sea water (i.e., something the cantata’s intended audience would have been expected to know and accept), see fn. 10, below.

⁹ The sense of lines 1–2 is derived from Psalm 18:5, which in the Luther Bibles of Bach’s day reads “Es umfingen mich des Todes Bande, und die Bäche Belial erschreckten mich” (“Death’s bonds beset me, and the [deathly torrential] brooks of Belial [Satan, according to 2 Corinthians 6:15] terrified me”).

¹⁰ The sense of this line is derived from Exodus 15:8, which in the Luther Bibles of Bach’s day reads “Durch dein Blasen täten sich die Wasser auf, und die Fluten stunden auf Haufen” (“[Lord,] by your blowing [upon the Red Sea when the Israelites were being pursued by Pharaoh’s army] the waters opened themselves up, and the floods stood [motionless, piled up] in heaps”), such that the word “Fluten” (“floods”) from Exodus 15:8 is substituted with the word “Wellen” (“waves”) from Matthew 8:24. When Jesus calmed the sea, in Matthew 8:26, the people declared, in 8:27, “Was ist das für ein Mann, dass ihm Wind und Meer gehorsam ist” (“What sort of man is this, that wind-and-sea is obedient to him [as they are to God in the Exodus and other biblical narratives]”).

¹¹ Matthew 8:26.

¹² The librettist here draws on the language specific to the parallel version of the story in Matthew 8:23-27 that is found in Mark 4:35-41; verse 39 reads “Und er stund auf, und bedräutehte den Wind, und sprach zu dem Meer: Schweig, und verstumme!” (“And he [Jesus] stood up, and rebuked the wind, and declared to the sea: ‘Be quiet, and fall silent’”). The text of this aria, then, is to be understood as spoken by Jesus; the “child” in its last line refers to the believer as his spiritual offspring.

¹³ The sense of this line is derived from Proverbs 8:29, which in the Luther Bibles of Bach’s day reads “da er dem Meer das Ziel setzte und den Wassern, dass sie nicht überschreiten seinen Befehl” (“[I, ‘Wisdom’ (a personification of God’s wisdom,) was there, at creation,] when he [God] set the limit to the sea and to the waters, that they would not transgress his command”).

¹⁴ A stanza of “Jesu, meine Freude.”

¹⁵ “Wittern” (in modern editions of this cantata, however, given with Bach’s old-fashioned spelling, “wüttern”) is used here not in its sense of “to sniff [the air, for the scent of prey],” but in its older German sense as a synonym for “toben” in the sense of “to bluster.”

¹⁶ “Erbittern” is apparently used here in its sense of “erzürnen” (“to [provoke to] anger”). A contemporary German-English dictionary lists a variety of meanings: “Erbittern (einen): to imbitter, exasperate, incense or provoke one; to put him in a bitter, crabbed or angry temper.”

¹⁷ The language of the last two lines is derived from Psalm 91:4-5, “Er wird dich mit seinen Fittichen decken … dass du nicht erschrecken müssest” (“He [the Lord] will cover you with his pinions . . . so that you do not have to be terrified”).