This chorale sets the fourteenth-century macaronic hymn In dulci jubilo. (Its text is both in Latin and German.) The text of the first verse reads, "In sweet jollity now sing and rejoice: The delight of our heart lies in a manger and shines like the sun at his mother's breast. He is alpha and omega." The last two verses of the hymn end with the expression of the desire to have actually been there when all of this happened. Buxtehude places the hymn melody in the soprano, as he frequently does in his chorale treatments, and deploys it with liberal embellishment. When the text speaks of rejoicing, Buxtehude uses some tricks with octave displacement to paint a picture of extroverted celebration. Like the chorale prelude on Puer natus in Bethlehem, this piece is in 3/2 time.

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