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Was soll ich aus dir machen, Ephraim? BWV 89 / BC A 155
Twenty-Second Sunday after Trinity, October 24, 1723
This cantata, Was soll ich aus dir machen, Ephraim? BWV 89 (What am I to make of you, Ephraim?), originated in October 1723, Bach’s first year in office at Leipzig; it is for the twenty-second Sunday after Trinity. Whether the cantata was performed only on this day, whether movements 1–3 were performed before the sermon and movements 4–6 afterward: all this remains uncertain. In the Gospel reading for this Sunday, from Matthew 18, Jesus tells the parable of the wicked servant in answer to Peter’s question: “Lord, how often must I forgive my brother who sins against me; is seven times enough?” and as commentary to his own correction: “Not seven times but seventy times seven times.” The story compares the kingdom of heaven to a king who, upon calculating a final invoice and having noticed that one of his servants owed him a considerable amount of money, first ordered him to sell his belongings and his family but, upon his desperate pleading, canceled all of his debts. However, when this servant harassed one of his fellows over a comparably small sum, his lord ordered him before him and said, “You wicked servant, I have canceled all of this debt for you as you asked me; should you then not also have mercy upon your fellow servant as I have had mercy upon you?” As punishment, the debt cancellation was revoked. “Thus,” as Jesus concluded his parable, “will my heavenly father also do to you if you do not forgive from your heart one of your brothers for his mistake.”The unknown librettist of this cantata text has situated his libretto in the field of tension between “mercy before justice,” between well-deserved punishment and merciful forgiveness. He places a Hebrew Bible passage at the beginning, drawn from Hosea 11: “Was soll ich aus dir machen, Ephraim? Soll ich dich schützen, Israel? Soll ich nicht billig ein Adama aus dir machen und dich wie Zeboim zurichten? Aber mein Herz ist anders Sinnes, meine Barmherzigkeit ist zu brünstig” (8; What am I to make of you, Ephraim? Shall I shelter you, Israel? Shouldn’t I treat you like Adamah and judge you like Zeboim? But my heart is changed within me, and my compassion is too fervent). Here, Ephraim is the short name for the Northern Kingdom of Israel; Adamah and Zeboim are cities that, as described in Deuteronomy, suffered the same fate of destruction as Sodom and Gomorrah. The ensuing recitative text comments upon the Sunday Gospel reading, applying the parable of debt and cancellation of debt to human sin:
Unzählbar ist die Rechnung deiner Sünden,
Und hätte Gott auch gleich Geduld,
Verwirft doch dein feindseliges Gemüte
Die angebotne Güte
Und drückt den Nächsten um die Schuld;
So muß die Rache sich entzünden.
Uncountable is the account of your sins,
And even if God had forbearance,
Your hostile disposition rejects
The goodness offered
And pressure your neighbor over his debt;
Thus must vengeance be enkindled.
The threat of punishment intensifies in the ensuing aria:
Ein unbarmherziges Gerichte
Wird über dich gewiß ergehn.
Die Rache fängt bei denen an,
Die nicht Barmherzigkeit getan,
Und machet sie wie Sodom ganz zunichte.
A judgment without mercy
Will certainly be issued against you.
Vengeance begins with those
Who have shown no mercy
And brings them, like Sodom, to naught.
A passage in the letter of James is the immediate reference text for these verses. It in turn is closely related to the Gospel reading of the day: “Es wird aber ein unbarmherziges Gericht über den ergehen, der nicht Barmherzigkeit getan hat; und die Barmherzigkeit rühmt sich wider das Gericht” (2:13; But there will be judgment without mercy for him who has shown no mercy; and mercy glories against judgment).
The ensuing recitative signals a new beginning. Its first verse begins with an almost playful alliteration:
Wohlan! Mein Herze legt Zorn, Zank und Zwietracht hin;
Es ist bereit, dem Nächsten zu vergeben.
Allein, wie schrecket mich mein sündenvolles Leben,
Daß ich vor Gott in Schulden bin.
All right! My heart lays aside anger, strife, and discord;
It is prepared to forgive my neighbor.
But how my sinful life terrifies me,
Since I am before God in my trespasses.
The certainty that this account can be settled with the blood of Jesus is confirmed not only by the close of the recitative but also by the associated aria text: “Gerechter Gott, ach, rechnest du?” (Righteous God, ah, do you take reckoning?), as well as the closing chorale strophe, the seventh strophe from Johannes Heermann’s 1630 hymn Wo soll ich fliehen hin (Whither shall I flee):
Mir mangelt zwar sehr viel,
Doch was ich haben will,
Ist alles mir zugute
Erlangt mit deinem Blute,
Damit ich überwinde
Tod, Teufel, Höll und Sünde.
I am indeed quite deficient,
Yet what I want to have,
For my sake, has all
Been gained with your blood
So that I overcome
Death, devil, hell, and sins.
With great clarity, Bach’s composition of this libretto reflects the tension in the text between the threat of punishment and forgiveness. An alarming rumbling in the bass, gloomy rising minor triads in the strings, and haunting sigh motives in the oboes characterize the beginning of the first aria, whose insistent questioning brings the music to a standstill again and again. The second half of the bass aria is calmer and more lively, as the text “Aber mein Herz ist anders Sinnes” (But my heart is changed within me) allows hope for a change; consequently, the rigid control of the stubbornly recurring figure is relaxed a bit. But this brightening is deceptive and does not last; the alto aria that follows a brief recitative is dominated by a theme that, with its half-tone steps, vividly depicts the terror in the text’s “unbarmherzigen Gerichtes” (judgment without mercy) with pitiless diction and slashing ferocity. The hopelessness of the situation is felt all the more strongly, as the restriction of the voice and the accompanying basso continuo imply the greatest possible concentration, deliberately blocking any possibility of evasion.
With the soprano’s recitative and aria, the gloom of this beginning is suddenly overcome and left behind. In particular, the B-flat major aria for soprano with obbligato oboe, “Gerechter Gott, ach, rechnest du?” (Righteous God, do you take reckoning?), leads to lighter pastures, with its dance-like
8 meter and gently flowing, almost song-like melody. The sigh of relief after prolonged hopelessness is unflaggingly sustained through the closing chorale with the melody “Auf meinen lieben Gott” (In my beloved God). Not even the mention of “Tod, Teufel, Höll und Sünde” (Death, devil, hell, and sin) near the end can bring the composer to abandon, even briefly, the simple harmonies in favor of a chromatic intensification or harmonic darkening.