 Bach contrasted sorrow and joy in earlier cantatas for the same occasion, first in Weimar in 1714, , then in Leipzig in 1725, .The unknown poet chose a quote from to begin the cantata, "We must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God", which Salomon Franck had already used for the first recitative of .The three following movements deplore the sufferings in the world, whereas three more movements depict the joyful hope for a better life in the Kingdom of God.