1st couplet
Address - “my son”
Command- “Don’t forget my law”
Value of the instruction-Long life on earth
2nd Couplet
Prohibition- do not let kindness and truth leave you
Command - bind it around your neck
Motive-Brings acceptance from both God and man
3rd couplet
- Trust
- do not lean
- the command of the twofold
- warning against self-deception
- warning against trusting your heart
4th couplet
Commands: -don't think you are wise -Fear God -refuse to do wrong Motive: literal translation is healed naval
5th couplet
Command:
-honor the Lord with your first fruits
Motive:
Your vats will overflow?
6th couplet
Prohibition: Do not resist
Prosperity is a blessing from the Lord
Adversity is also a blessing from the Lord
Motive: It is just as difficult for a believer to accept disciplines from the Lord as it is a child from his father
Benefits of Wisdom
- Wisdom offers her gifts to anyone who will take them
- Taking them involves marrying her
- When we honour God, he honours us
- Man usually defines happiness in materialistic terms
- God never does, because materialism does not make a person truly happy
Wisdom & Creation
- God used wisdom to make and run the world
- It is vital for us to have wisdom in order to occupy and subdue the earth
Prohibition Against Fear
Prohibition- do not be afraid of sudden fear
Motive- there are no hidden obstacles or traps to catch our feet
Prohibition Concerning Ethics #1
“Don’t withhold good from ‘lords’ when it is in the ‘god’ of your hand to do
-Most scholars believe this teaches punctuality in paying bills or generosity to the poor
PCE#2
“If not now, when? If not here, where? If not I,who?
-who is my neighbour?
PCE#3
- enemy should not trust us, but a neighbour should
- To plot a crime against a friend is a double crime
PCE#4
- Unnecessary arguing
- Certain people love to argue
PCE#5
- warning against jealousy
- man of violence may, and often does prosper
- however he unjustly gained wealth, therefore he does not covet