God’s servants must look for temptations: and must arm themselves with
patience and confidence in God.
2:1. Son, when thou comest to the service of God, stand in justice and
in fear, and prepare thy soul for temptation.
2:2. Humble thy heart, and endure: incline thy ear, and receive the
words of understanding: and make not haste in the time of clouds.
2:3. Wait on God with patience: join thyself to God, and endure, that
thy life may be increased in the latter end.
2:4. Take all that shall be brought upon thee: and in thy sorrow
endure, and in thy humiliation keep patience.
2:5. For gold and silver are tried in the fire, but acceptable men in
the furnace of humiliation.
2:6. Believe God, and he will recover thee: and direct thy way, and
trust in him. Keep his fear, and grow old therein.
2:7. Ye that fear the Lord, wait for his mercy: and go not aside from
him lest ye fall.
2:8. Ye that fear the Lord, believe him: and your reward shall not be
made void.
2:9. Ye that fear the Lord hope in him, and mercy shall come to you for
your delight.
2:10. Ye that fear the Lord, love him, and your hearts shall be
enlightened.
2:11. My children behold the generations of men: and know ye that no
one hath hoped in the Lord, and hath been confounded.
2:12. For who hath continued in his commandment, and hath been
forsaken? or who hath called upon him, and he despised him?
2:13. For God is compassionate and merciful, and will forgive sins in
the day of tribulation: and he is a protector to all that seek him in
truth.
2:14. Woe to them that are of a double heart and to wicked lips, and to
the hands that do evil, and to the sinner that goeth on the earth two
ways.
2:15. Woe to them that are fainthearted, who believe not God: and
therefore they shall not be protected by him.
2:16. Woe to them that have lost patience, and that have forsaken the
right ways, and have gone aside into crooked ways.
2:17. And what will they do, when the Lord shall begin to examine?
2:18. They that fear the Lord, will not be incredulous to his word: and
they that love him, will keep his way.
2:19. They that fear the Lord, will seek after the things that are well
pleasing to him: and they that love him, shall be filled with his law.
2:20. They that fear the Lord, will prepare their hearts, and in his
sight will sanctify their souls,
2:21. They that fear the Lord, keep his commandments, and will have
patience even until his visitation,
2:22. Saying: If we do not penance, we shall fall into the hands of the
Lord, and not into the hands of men.
2:23. For according to his greatness, so also is his mercy with him.