Johann Sebastian Bach composed the church cantata Brich dem Hungrigen dein Brot, BWV 39, in Leipzig in 1726 for the first Sunday after Trinity, which fell on 23 June that year. Three years earlier, on the Sunday after Trinity in 1723, Bach had taken office as Thomaskantor and started his first cycle of cantatas for Sundays and Feast Days in the liturgical year. On the Sunday after Trinity in 1724, he began his second cycle, consisting of chorale cantatas. Brich dem Hungrigen dein Brot is regarded as part of Bach's third cantata cycle which was written sporadically between 1725 and 1727. He marked the occasion by an ambitious work with an exceptionally masterful opening chorus.