The righteous perishes

Tenor voice part of Jacob Handl's *Ecce quomodo moritur iustus*: over a century after its publication "for use in the Catholic Church" ("Catholicae Ecclesiae vsv") it was a well-known Protestant funeral motet.

The righteous perishes are the words with which the 57th chapter of the Book of Isaiah start. In Christianity, Isaiah 57:1–2 is associated with the death of Christ, leading to liturgical use of the text at Tenebrae: the 24th responsory for Holy Week, "Ecce quomodo moritur justus" (See how the just dies), is based on this text. More generally, the text is associated with the death of loved ones and is used at burials. As such, and in other versions and translations, the Bible excerpt has been set to music.