Page:04.BCOT.KD.PoeticalBooks.vol.4.Writings.djvu/1469

 fools inherit shame; the fruit of their conduct is shame and evermore shame. =Chap. 4=

Verses 1-4
He now confirms and explains the command to duty which he has placed at the beginning of the whole (Pro 1:8). This he does by his own example, for he relates from the history of his own youth, to the circle of disciples by whom he sees himself surrounded, what good doctrine his parents had taught him regarding the way of life: 1 Hear, ye sons, the instruction of a father,   And attend that ye may gain understanding; 2 For I give to you good doctrine,    Forsake not my direction! 3 For I was a son to my father,   A tender and only (son) in the sight of my mother. 4 And he instructed me, and said to me:   “Let thine heart hold fast my words:    Observe my commandments and live!” That בּנים in the address comes here into the place of בּני, hitherto used, externally denotes that בני in the progress of these discourses finds another application: the poet himself is so addressed by his father. Intentionally he does not say אביכם (cf. Pro 1:8): he does not mean the father of each individual among those addressed, but himself, who is a father in his relation to them as his disciples; and as he manifests towards them fatherly love, so also he can lay claim to paternal authority over them. לדעת is rightly vocalized, not לדעת. The words do not give the object of attention, but the design, the aim. The combination of ideas in דּעת בּינה (cf. Pro 1:2),