Ärgre dich, o Seele, nicht (Do not be confounded, o soul),[1] BWV 186 is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach.

He composed it originally in Weimar in 1716 for Advent, BWV 186a, and expanded it in Leipzig in 1723 for the seventh Sunday after Trinity, where he first performed it on 11 July 1723.

The scoring of the four arias shows increasing complexity and also a rise from the lowest voice to the higher one, soprano and alto coming in only in the second part.

It resembles a gigue, and the voices, singing "Laß, Seele, kein Leiden von Jesu dich scheiden" (My soul, let no sorrow separate you from Jesus),[1] illustrate the meaning by mostly parallel movement.

[4] The chorale is embedded in a concerto of the orchestra, the cantus firmus is given to the soprano, whereas the lower voices sing counterpoint in faster movement, sometimes in imitation.