There is no soundness in my flesh in E minor, BWV 25

Bach composed the cantata in 1723 in his first year as Thomaskantor in Leipzig for the 14th Sunday after Trinity. The prescribed readings for the Sunday were from the Epistle to the Galatians, Paul's teaching on "works of the flesh" and "fruit of the Spirit" (Galatians 5:16–24), and from the Gospel of Luke, Cleansing ten lepers (Luke 17:11–19). According to Christoph Wolff, the cantata text was written by Johann Jacob Rambach and published in 1720 in Halle in Geistliche Poesien. The poet relates to the Gospel and compares the situation of man in general to that of the lepers. The sickness is first expressed in words from Psalm 38, Psalms 38:4. As Julian Mincham observes, "sin, decay, God's fury and the rotting of bones permeate much Lutheran theology in general and this opening chorus in particular". At the end of movement 3 Jesus is asked to heal. The last aria expressed the hope to sing thanks for it in the choir of the angels. The cantata is closed by the 12th and final stanza of Johann Heermann's hymn "Treuer Gott, ich muss dir klagen" (1630).