Here and in Siehe, ich will viel Fischer aussenden, BWV 88, composed three weeks before, the text is similar in structure and content to cantatas of Johann Ludwig Bach.

[2] The cantata in seven movements is scored for three vocal soloists (alto, tenor, and bass), a four-part choir, two flauti traversi, two oboes, two violins, viola and basso continuo.

The strings open the movement and repeat that music four times in different keys, the bass part showing bold leaps and rich coloraturas.

[2] John Eliot Gardiner observes:The second part of the cantata opens with a movement for bass and strings marked arioso – deceptively so (it is Bach’s way of flagging up utterances by Christ in person as distinct from passages of indirect speech), as in truth this is a full blown, highly virtuosic aria, half Vivaldian concerto, half operatic scena.

[5]The figuration is similar in the following alto aria, but mellow in the solo flute with continuo, matching the consoling words.