פַּלְגֵי־מַ֣יִם לֶב־מֶ֭לֶךְ בְּיַד־יְהוָ֑ה עַֽל־כָּל־אֲשֶׁ֖ר יַחְפֹּ֣ץ יַטֶּֽנּוּ׃
בעכן װאַסער איז דעם מלכס האַרץ אין גאָטס האַנט, װוּהין נאָר ער װיל, נײַגט ער עס.
Duties of the Heart
Take counsel with your soul. Be ashamed to act with your Creator in a way that you would be ashamed to act with even a human being like yourself. For, you know that if you angered even a low ranking official of the king, you would not delay to humble yourself to him, and to plea to him to forgive you, so that he will not punish you, even though he has little power in this. All the more so if a high ranking officer were to be angry at you, and even more so if it was the king himself, that you would hasten to seek forgiveness from him, show remorse to him, and try to appease him out of your fear of being swiftly punished.
Yet you already know (from the gate of trust of this book), his helplessness of being able to do anything without the decree of the Creator, as the wise man said: "A king's heart is like rivulets of water in the L-ord's hand; wherever He wishes, He turns it" (Mishlei 21:1). All this despite that (he may never get around to punishing you due to) his reign ending, his kingdom being overthrown, his mind confused or distracted by his numerous matters, forgetting or overlooking you. This happens for revealed things, all the more so for hidden things. Despite your knowledge of all of this, you would not delay to seek from him a pardon to your transgression. You would rush to do that which will appease him and be acceptable to him.
My brother, how then can we not be ashamed of our Creator, who observes what is revealed as well as what is concealed of all our deeds and thoughts. He is not subject to forgetting nor overlooking anything. No matter can distract Him from another matter. None can escape from His justice, and there is no end to His reign? How can we turn away from Him, or delay humbling ourselves before Him and repenting to Him, while we don't know our final end nor the number of days we have been allotted.
Yet you already know (from the gate of trust of this book), his helplessness of being able to do anything without the decree of the Creator, as the wise man said: "A king's heart is like rivulets of water in the L-ord's hand; wherever He wishes, He turns it" (Mishlei 21:1). All this despite that (he may never get around to punishing you due to) his reign ending, his kingdom being overthrown, his mind confused or distracted by his numerous matters, forgetting or overlooking you. This happens for revealed things, all the more so for hidden things. Despite your knowledge of all of this, you would not delay to seek from him a pardon to your transgression. You would rush to do that which will appease him and be acceptable to him.
My brother, how then can we not be ashamed of our Creator, who observes what is revealed as well as what is concealed of all our deeds and thoughts. He is not subject to forgetting nor overlooking anything. No matter can distract Him from another matter. None can escape from His justice, and there is no end to His reign? How can we turn away from Him, or delay humbling ourselves before Him and repenting to Him, while we don't know our final end nor the number of days we have been allotted.