Bible Text & Cross-references:
God's servants must look for temptations: and must arm themselves
with patience and confidence in God.
1 Son, *when thou comest to the service of God, stand in justice and in
fear, and prepare thy soul for temptation.
2 Humble thy heart, and endure: incline thy ear, and receive the words
of understanding: and make not haste in the time of clouds.
3 Wait on God with patience: join thyself to God, and endure, that thy
life may be increased in the latter end.
4 Take all that shall be brought upon thee: and in thy sorrow endure, and
in thy humiliation keep patience:
5 *For gold and silver are tried in the fire, but acceptable men in the
furnace of humiliation.
6 Believe God, and he will recover thee: and direct thy way, and trust
in him. Keep his fear, and grow old therein.
7 Ye that fear the Lord, wait for his mercy: and go not aside from him,
lest ye fall.
8 Ye that fear the Lord, believe him: and your reward shall not be made
void.
9 Ye that fear the Lord, hope in him: and mercy shall come to you for your
delight.
10 Ye that fear the Lord, love him, and your hearts shall be enlightened.
11 My children, behold the generations of men: and know ye that no one
hath hoped in the Lord, and hath been confounded.
12 *For who hath continued in his commandment, and hath been forsaken?
or who hath called upon him, and he despised him?
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.
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.
15 Woe to them that are faint-hearted, who believe not God: and therefore
they shall not be protected by him.
16 Woe to them that have lost patience, and that have forsaken the right
ways, and have gone aside into crooked ways.
17 And what will they do, when the Lord shall begin to examine?
18 They that fear the Lord, will not be incredulous to his word: *and they
that love him, will keep his way.
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.
20 They that fear the Lord, will prepare their hearts, and in his sight
will sanctify their souls.
21 They that fear the Lord, keep his commandments, and will have patience
even until his visitation,
22 Saying: If we do not penance, we shall fall into the hands of the Lord,
and not into the hands of men.
23 For according to his greatness, so also is his mercy with him.
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*
1: Matthew iv. 1.; 2 Timothy iii. 12.
5: Wisdom iii. 6.
12: Psalm xxx. 1.
14: 3 Kings xviii. 21.
18: John xiv. 23.