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Duties towards God

2My child, when you come to serve the Lord,
   prepare yourself for testing.^*
2 Set your heart right and be steadfast,
   and do not be impetuous in time of calamity.
³ Cling to him and do not depart,
   so that your last days may be prosperous.
⁴ Accept whatever befalls you,
   and in times of humiliation be patient.
⁵ For gold is tested in the fire,
   and those found acceptable, 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;
   do not stray, or else you may fall.
⁸ You who fear the Lord, trust in him,
   and your reward will not be lost.
⁹ You who fear the Lord, hope for good things,
   for lasting joy and mercy.^*
10 Consider the generations of old and see:
   has anyone trusted in the Lord and been disappointed?
Or has anyone persevered in the fear of the Lord^* and been forsaken?
   Or has anyone called upon him and been neglected?
¹¹ For the Lord is compassionate and merciful;
   he forgives sins and saves in time of distress.

¹² Woe to timid hearts and to slack hands,
   and to the sinner who walks a double path!
¹³ Woe to the faint-hearted who have no trust!
   Therefore they will have no shelter.
¹⁴ Woe to you who have lost your nerve!
   What will you do when the Lord’s reckoning comes?

¹⁵ Those who fear the Lord do not disobey his words,
   and those who love him keep his ways.
¹⁶ Those who fear the Lord seek to please him,
   and those who love him are filled with his law.
¹⁷ Those who fear the Lord prepare their hearts,
   and humble themselves before him.
¹⁸ Let us fall into the hands of the Lord,
   but not into the hands of mortals;
for equal to his majesty is his mercy,
   and equal to his name are his works.^*