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My son, if you come to serve the Lord, prepare your soul for temptation.
Verse 1. God. All must be tried. Tobit 12:13. Hebrews 12:6. Lu. 24:46. But God will grant sufficient grace. 1 Corinthians 10:13. Calmet.
Set your heart aright, constantly endure, and don’t make haste in time of calamity.
Verse 2. Humble. Greek “regulate thy heart, and endure, and make not haste in the time of trouble,” ( Bible.) inflicted by God. Grot.—But not impatient. Isaiah 28:16.—Clouds. Lit. “overcast,” obductionis. Bible.—Desire not death, in order to be covered from the miseries of life; for that would ( Worthington.) border on despair. Bible.
Cling to him, and don’t depart, that you may be increased at your latter end.
Verse 3. Patience. Or expectation of being relieved. Menochius.
Accept whatever is brought upon you, and be patient when you suffer humiliation.
For gold is tried in the fire, and acceptable men in the furnace of humiliation.
Verse 5. Humiliation. It shews what they really are. Calmet.
Put your trust in him, and he will help you. Make your ways straight, and set your hope on him.
All you who fear the Lord, wait for his mercy. Don’t turn aside, lest you fall.
All you who fear the Lord, put your trust in him, and your reward will not fail.
All you who fear the Lord, hope for good things, and for eternal gladness and mercy.
Look at the generations of old, and see: Who ever put his trust in the Lord, and was ashamed? Or who remained in his fear, and was forsaken? Or who called upon him, and he neglected him?
Verse 10. Enlightened. With joy. Isaiah 58. Menochius.—This verse is not in Greek. To avoid such frequent repetitions, it would be well to mark the passage in different characters, ( Bible.) or between crotchets, as in the French version. Calmet.—Yet the Greek editions are not uniform. See Drusius and Hæschel.
For the Lord is full of compassion and mercy. He forgives sins and saves in time of affliction.
Woe to fearful hearts, to faint hands, and to the sinner who goes two ways!
Woe to the faint heart! For it doesn’t believe. Therefore it won’t be defended.
Woe to you who have lost your patience! And what will you all do when the Lord visits you?
Verse 14. Ways. Attempting to reconcile the service of the world with that of God, who rejects hypocrites, ( Bible.) the inconstant, and faint-hearted. verse 15 and 3 Kennicott. 18:21. Calmet.—Virtues and sins will receive their due. Worthington.
Those who fear the Lord will not disobey his words. Those who love him will keep his ways.
Those who fear the Lord will seek his good pleasure. Those who love him will be filled with the law.
Those who fear the Lord will prepare their hearts, and will humble their souls in his sight.
We will fall into the hands of the Lord, and not into the hands of men; for as his majesty is, so also is his mercy.