Duties towards God

¹ My son, if you come forwards to serve the Lord, prepare yourself for testing.

² Set your heart right and be steadfast and do not be hasty in time of calamity.

³ Hold to him and do not depart, that you may reach full growth by the end of your life.

⁴ Accept whatever is brought upon you and in changes that humble you be patient.

⁵ For gold is tested in the fire, and acceptable people in the furnace of humiliation.

⁶ Trust in him, and he will help you; make your ways straight and hope in him.

⁷ You who fear the Lord, wait for his mercy; and turn not aside, lest you fall.

⁸ You who fear the Lord, trust in him, and your reward will certainly not fail;

⁹ you who fear the Lord, hope for good things, for everlasting joy and mercy.

¹⁰ Consider the ancient generations and see: who trusted in the Lord and was put to shame? Or who persevered in the fear of the Lord and was forsaken? Or who called upon him and was overlooked?

¹¹ For the Lord is compassionate and merciful; he forgives sins and saves in time of affliction.

¹² Woe to cowardly hearts and to slack hands and to the sinner who walks along two ways!

¹³ Woe to the faint heart, for it does not trust! Therefore it will not be sheltered.

¹⁴ Woe to you who have lost your endurance! What will you do when the Lord punishes you?

¹⁵ Those who fear the Lord will not disobey his words, and those who love him will keep his ways. ¹⁶ Those who fear the Lord will seek his approval, and those who love him will be filled with the law.

¹⁷ Those who fear the Lord will prepare their hearts and will humble their souls before him.

¹⁸ We will fall into the hands of the Lord and not into the hands of people; for as his majesty is, so also is his mercy.