CHAPTER 2
1 Son, nighing to the service of God, stand thou in rightfulness [or rightwiseness], and dread; and make ready [or prepare] thy soul to temp-tation.
2 Bear down thine heart, and suffer, and bow down thine ear, and take the words of understanding, and haste thou not into the time of death [or time of oppressing].
3 Suffer thou the sustainings of God; be thou joined to God, and abide thou, that thy life wax in the last time.
4 Take thou all thing that is set to thee, and suffer thou in sorrow, and have thou patience in thy lowness [or meekness].
5 For why gold and silver is proved in fire; forsooth men worthy to be received be proved in the chimney of lowness [or meekness].
6 Believe thou to God, and he shall recover thee; and dress thou thy way, and hope thou into him. Keep thou his dread, and wax thou eld [or old] therein.
7 Ye that dread the Lord, abide his mercy, and bow ye not away from him, lest ye fall down [or lest ye fall].
8 Ye that dread the Lord, believe to him, and your meed shall not be voided [away].
9 Ye that dread the Lord, hope into him, and mercy shall come to you into delighting.
10 Ye that dread the Lord, love him, and your hearts shall be lightened or enlightened. Sons, behold ye the nations of men, and know ye, that no man hoped in the Lord, and was shamed; none dwelled in his behests, and was forsaken; either who inward-ly called him, and he despised him?
11 For why God is piteous, and merciful, and he shall forgive sins in the day of tribulation; and he is defender to all men, that seek him in truth.
12 Woe to the double in heart, and with cursed lips, and mis-doing [or evil-doing] hands; and to a sinner entering [or going] into the land by two ways.
13 Woe to them that be dissolute of heart, that believe not to God; and therefore they shall not be defended of him.
14 Woe to them that have lost patience, and that have forsaken rightful [or right] ways, and have turned away [or aside] into shrewd ways. And what shall they do, when the Lord shall begin to behold [or to inwardly look]?
15 They that dread the Lord, shall not be unbelieveful to his word; and they that love him, shall keep his ways.
16 They that dread the Lord, shall inquire [or inwardly seek] those things, that be well pleasant [or well pleased] to him; and they that love him, shall be filled with his law.
17 They that dread the Lord, shall make ready [or prepare] their hearts, and shall hallow their souls in his sight. They that dread the Lord, shall keep his commandments, and they shall have patience till to the behold-ing of him;
18 and shall say, If we do not penance, we shall fall into the hands of the Lord, and not into the hands of men. For by the greatness of him, so and his mercy is with him. The sons of wisdom be the church of just [or rightwise] men, and the nation of them is obedience and love.