Valet will ich dir geben

Valet will ich dir geben. Valerius Herberger* (1562-1627). Herberger was a fine preacher and a devoted pastor: during a serious outbreak of the plague in 1613, he buried the dead, comforted the bereaved, and organised food supplies for the people who remained alive. It was during this outbreak that he wrote this hymn ‘Valet will ich dir geben’ (‘Farewell I gladly bid thee’), now in the ‘Sterben und ewiges Leben’ (‘death and everlasting life’) section of EG, in all five stanzas. It was printed on a broadsheet and in Der Dritte Theil Der Geistlichen Trawrbinden Valerii Herbergeri (Leipzig, 1614), with a long and moving title: ‘Valet Valerii Herbergeri, Das er der Welt gegeben, Anno 1613, im...