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12 Hope deferred makes the heart sick,
    but a wish fulfilled is a tree of life.[a]
13 Whoever despises the word must pay for it,[b]
    but whoever reveres the command will be rewarded.
14 The teaching of the wise is a fountain of life,
    turning one from the snares of death.

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Footnotes

  1. 13:12 “Tree of life” occurs in Gn 2–3, Prv 3:18; 11:30; 13:12; 15:4, and Rev 2:7; 22:2, 14, 19. It provides food and healing.
  2. 13:13 Must pay for it: lit., “is pledge to it,” i.e., just as one who has pledged or provided surety for another’s loan is obligated to that pledge, so one is not free of a command until one performs it.