Herr, gehe nicht ins Gericht mit deinem Knecht, BWV 105

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. He composed it in Leipzig for the ninth Sunday after Trinity and first performed it on 25 July 1723.

Bach composed the cantata in his first year in Leipzig for the Ninth Sunday after Trinity. The prescribed readings for the Sunday were from the Epistle to the Romans, a warning of false gods and consolation in temptation (), and from the Gospel of Luke, the parable of the Unjust Steward (). The opening lines of the cantata, by an unknown librettist, come from . The theme of the cantata is derived from the Gospel: since mankind cannot survive before God's judgement, he should forswear earthly pleasures, the mammon of unrighteousness, for the friendship of Jesus alone; for by His death mankind's guilt was absolved, opening up the everlasting habitations. The closing chorale is the eleventh verse of the hymn Jesu, der du meine Seele, written by Johann Rist in 1641.

Bach first performed the cantata on 25 July 1723.

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 cantata opens with a sombre harmonically complex orchestral prelude (adagio), with tortured chromatic modulations, suspended sevenths and a sighing, mournful motif in the violins and oboes. Similar chromaticism has been used elsewhere by Bach to illustrate the crucifixion, for example for the Crucifixus section of the Credo in the Mass in B minor and for the last stanza, "trug uns'rer Sünden schwere Bürd' wohl an dem Kreuze lange", in the choral prelude O Mensch, bewein dein Sünde groß, BWV 622. The chorus enters independently in polyphonic motet style over this rich orchestral texture. This is followed by a measured permutation fugue (allegro), initially for only the concertante singers and continuo, but eventually taken up by the whole ripieno choir, doubled by the orchestra.

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