BWV 27

Wer weiß, wie nahe mir mein Ende? (Who knows how near to me my end?), BWV 27, is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. He composed it in Leipzig for the 16th Sunday after Trinity and first performed it on 6 October 1726.

Bach composed the cantata in his fourth year in Leipzig for the sixteenth Sunday after Trinity. The prescribed readings for the day were from the Epistle to the Ephesians (), and from the Gospel of Luke ().

An unknown poet included in movement 1 the first stanza of the chorale by Ämilie Juliane von Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt and closed it with the first stanza of the hymn "Welt ade! ich bin dein müde" by Johann Georg Albinus.,

The chorale theme Wer nur den lieben Gott läßt walten (Zahn 2778) was first documented by Georg Neumark in Jena, but the melody can be likely traced back to Kiel, 1641.

The five-part (SSATB) harmonization of the concluding chorale Welt, ade! ich bin dein müde is not by Bach but by Johann Rosenmüller (published for the first time in 's Geistliche Harffen-Klang, Leipzig, 1679).

Bach first performed the cantata in a service on 6 October 1726.

The cantata is scored for four soloists—soprano, alto, tenor and bass—a four- or five-part choir, horn, three oboes, oboe da caccia, organ, two violins, viola, and basso continuo.

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