Oculi (Third Sunday in Lent), First and Twentieth Sundays after Trinity, and probably for the Seventh Sunday after Trinity.

Georg Christian Lehms, Gottgefälliges Kirchen-Opffer (Darmstadt, 1711); Facs: Neumann T, p. 259.

?15 July 1714, Weimar; Parody: 1 ---> St. Mark Passion, BWV 247/53.

BG 12, 2; NBA I/18.

1. Aria (A)

Stand steadfast against transgression,
Or its poison thee will seize.

Be thou not by Satan blinded,
For God's glory to dishonor
Brings a curse of fatal doom.

2. Recit. (A)

The shape of vile transgression
In sooth is outward wondrous fair;
But yet one must
Receive with sorrow and dismay
Much toil and woe thereafter.
The outside is pure gold,
But, should one look within,
Appears nought but an empty shadow
And whited sepulcher.(1)
It is the Sodom's apple like,(2)
And those who are with it united
Shall never reach God's heav'nly realm.
It is just like a sharpened sword
Which doth our soul and body pierce.

3. Aria (A)

Who sin commits is of the devil,(3)
For he it was who brought it forth.
But if one gainst its haughty fetters
With true devotion stand steadfastly,
Shall it at once from here take flight.

1. Cf. Mt. 23:27.

2. Josephus, Bellum Judaicum, IV. 8. 4, writes that apples of Sodom looked like edible fruit, but turned to smoke and ashes when picked.

3. Cf. Dürr, p. 369, and BWV 179/3.

3. Cf. 1 Jn. 3:8.

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