Herr, gehe nicht ins Gericht mit deinem Knecht (Lord, do not pass judgment on Your servant), BWV 105 is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach.

The alto recitative draws from biblical allusions in Psalms 51:11—"Cast me not away from thy presence"— and Malachi 3:5—"I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers."

The closing chorale is the eleventh verse of the hymn Jesu, der du meine Seele, written by Johann Rist in 1641.

[4][1][8] The cantata in six movements is scored for four vocal soloists (soprano, alto, tenor and bass), a four-part choir, corno, two oboes, two violins, viola, and basso continuo.

The ritornello has a penitent mood, its slow canon full of tortured chromatic modulations and suspended sevenths, which develop into sighing, mournful motifs in the violins and oboes.

As Spitta writes, "at last it gives out its own penitential cry, going through it completely in the middle range of compass, as if it flowed straight from the hearts of singing hosts."

[1][9][2][17] The second part of the first movement is a spirited permutation fugue, marked allegro, initially scored for only the concertante singers and continuo, but eventually taken up by the whole ripieno choir, doubled by the orchestra.

The tone of the text is condemnatory: "Denn vor dir wird kein Lebendiger gerecht"—"For in thy sight shall no man living be justified."

The following fugal entry is sung by the bass, with the tenor now taking up the countersubject derived partly on the continuo quaver figures at the very beginning of the fugue.

As André Pirro has commented, in the music for Bach's prelude, "neither the description, the drama nor the particular reference to words matter; instead it is the substance that has to be expressed, soberly, without gesticulation, but with a sense of authority, like a herald proclaiming a law or a philosopher declaring the principles of his system."

"[1][3][4][18][19] The short but expressive alto recitative is followed by one of Bach's most original and striking arias, depicting in musical terms the anxiety and restless desperation of the sinner.

The continuous remarkable melodic line of the soprano, with its frenetic upward semiquaver and semidemiquaver runs, are developed in canon with the oboe, as if "each makes complaints about the other."

In Bach's musical iconography, these repeated quavers represent the death knell, when—in the record of goods, body and life—judgement on the soul is passed by God.

The tenor part has a remarkable dance-like quality, similar to a gavotte, which results in the off-the-beat division of phrases into a half-bar—Kann ich nur—or a bar—Jesum nur zum Freunde machen).

In the middle section, although the melodic material for the tenor is independent, the string accompaniment is derived from the theme of the original ritornello as well as the garlands of demisemiquavers.

Musically the chorale echoes the calming of man after conciliation with his Maker, bringing to an end a cantata that the musicologist Alfred Dürr has described as one of "the most sublime descriptions of the soul in baroque and Christian art".