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Proverbs, Chapter 1, verse 7 has always been a problem for me.  In the King James Version it states, “The Fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge: …” I have a problem fearing the God of love. Modern translations do little to help me. The Revised Standard Version changes the colon following “knowledge” to a semi-colon. The New International Version changes it to a comma.

My first help came from the New Jerusalem Bible. It uses the name, Yahweh, instead of “Lord”, but it has a footnote that says essentially that, “The fear of Yahweh…” means, “… devotion to God.”