4:3 When I was a son to my father, 1
a tender only child 2 before my mother,
4:4 he taught me, and he said to me:
“Let your heart lay hold of my words;
keep my commands so that 3 you will live.
1 tn Or “a boy with my father.”
2 tc The LXX introduces the ideas of “obedient” and “beloved” for these two terms. This seems to be a free rendering, if not a translation of a different Hebrew textual tradition. The MT makes good sense and requires no emendation.
3 tn The imperative with the vav expresses volitional sequence after the preceding imperative: “keep and then you will live,” meaning “keep so that you may live.”