## The Fear of Yahweh 

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When you sit down to dine with a ruler, Understand well what is before you, 

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So you should put a knife to your throat If you are a man of appetite. 

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Do not desire his delicacies, For it is bread of falsehood. 

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Do not weary yourself to gain wealth, Because of your understanding, cease! 

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Do you make your eyes fly _up to see it_? But it is not there! Because it certainly makes itself wings Like an eagle that flies _toward_ the heavens. 

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Do not eat the bread of a selfish man, And do not desire his delicacies; 

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For as he calculates in his soul, so he is. "Eat and drink!" he says to you, But his heart is not with you. 

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You will vomit up the morsel you have eaten, And you will corrupt your pleasant words. 

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Do not speak in the hearing of a fool, For he will despise the insight of your speech. 

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Do not move the ancient boundary And do not come into the fields of the orphans, 

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For their Redeemer is strong; He will plead their case against you. 

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Bring your heart to discipline And your ears to words of knowledge. 

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Do not withhold discipline from the child, Although you strike him with the rod, he will not die. 

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You shall strike him with the rod And deliver his soul from Sheol. 

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My son, if your heart is wise, My own heart also will be glad; 

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And my inmost being will exult When your lips speak upright things. 

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Do not let your heart be jealous of sinners, But _be zealous_ in the fear of Yahweh always. 

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Surely there is a future, And your hope will not be cut off. 

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You, my son, listen and be wise, And direct your heart in the way. 

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Do not be with heavy drinkers of wine, _Or_ with gluttonous eaters of meat; 

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For the heavy drinker and the glutton will come to poverty, And drowsiness will clothe _them_ with rags. 

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Listen to your father who begot you, And do not despise your mother when she is old. 

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Buy truth, and do not sell _it_, _Get_ wisdom and discipline and understanding. 

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The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice, And he who begets a wise son will be glad in him. 

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Let your father and your mother be glad, And let her rejoice who gave birth to you. 

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Give your heart to me, my son, And let your eyes delight in my ways. 

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For a harlot is a deep pit And a foreign woman is a narrow well. 

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Surely she lies in wait as a robber, And adds to the treacherous among men. 

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Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has contentions? Who has complaining? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes? 

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Those who linger long over wine, Those who go to search out mixed wine. 

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Do not look on the wine when it glistens red, When it sparkles in the cup, When it goes down smoothly; 

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At the end--like a serpent it bites, And like a viper it stings. 

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Your eyes will see strange things And your heart will speak perverse things. 

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And you will be like one who lies down in the heart of the sea, Or like one who lies down on the top of a mast. 

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"They struck me, _but_ I did not become ill; They beat me, _but_ I did not know _it_. When shall I awake? I will seek yet another."