The Weight of Parental Counsel.
ADMONITIONS CONCERNING WISDOM. — V. 1. Hear, ye children, the affectionate address being intended to arouse attention in his readers, the instruction of a father, one who, for that reason, had the experience needed to teach others, and attend to know understanding, to make it their property.
V. 2. For I give you good doctrine, teachings which he had received from his father, the value of which had been proved, which he could therefore hand over to the younger generation with words of warm commendation; forsake ye not my law, by setting his advice aside, by neglecting it.
V. 3. For I was my father’s son, an object of special care and tender regard in David’s eyes, tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother, the one whom she surrounded with particular love. V. 4. He taught me also and said unto me, David thus proving himself a wise teacher, Let thine heart retain my words, holding them fast for the purpose of following them always; keep my commandments and live, for by observing them he would become the possessor of true life and enjoy its advantages.
V. 5. Get wisdom, get understanding, that being the sum total of David’s instruction; forget it not, clinging to it as a most valuable possession; neither decline from the words of my mouth, literally, “forget not, turn not aside from, the sayings of my mouth,” as they were offered in the maxims which Solomon heard time and again.