(c) As Renunciation of One's Claims to the Respect and Consideration of Others
VII. 21. Likewise, take not all the gossip of people to heart, lest thou hear that thy friend hath reviled thee! 22. For thy heart is conscious that thou thyself hast often-times made little of others. 20. For:
There is no just man upon the earth
Who worketh good and never faileth.
(d) Of One's Claims to Act Independently of their Counsel and Aid
IV. 9. Two are better off than one; 10. for should one of them fall, the other lifts him up again. Woe to him that is alone, if he fall, and there be not another to raise him up. 11. Likewise, if two lie down together, they become warm; but how can one grow warm alone? 12. Moreover, if a man would overpower the single one, two can keep him at bay, and a threefold cord will not easily give way.
13. Better is the youth, needy and wise, than the king old and foolish, who can no longer take a warning to heart. 14. For the former went forth from prison to govern, though born poor in the realm of the king. 15. I saw all the living who walk under the sun, in attendance on the youth who was to take his place. 16. There was no end to the multitude….[281] who were before them; nor did those who lived afterwards glory in him. For this likewise is vanity and a grasping of wind.
RECOMMENDATION OF WISDOM AS RATIONAL PIETY[282]
A Warning: (a) Against Outward and Sacrificial Worship
V. 1. Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God! And to draw near him, in order to obey, is better than the offering of sacrifices by fools: for they know not….[283] to work evil.
(b) Against Mechanical Prayer