“He taught me, and said to me”: This line is introductory to the quoted material that begins in the second line. Some translate it as “This is what he would say” or “Here is what he used to teach me.”
“Let your heart hold fast my words” is literally “Let your heart keep my words.” “Heart” is used to represent the mind and intellect. In the Hebrew it is the “heart” that keeps things in mind. Refer to 2.2. We may also say, for example, “Keep my words in your thoughts,” “Keep my words in your memory,” or “Remember the teachings you learn from me.”
“Keep my commandments, and live”: This line is identical to one in 7.2. It expresses the same thought as the previous line, with “my commandments” replacing “my words”. “Commandments” is the same word as used in 2.1 and 3.1, where it refers to the instruction, orders, or teaching given by the person who is wise. The result of keeping these lessons is life, which here, as in 3.2, refers to a long and happy life. In some languages the command to “live” addressed to someone who is already alive is nonsense. In such cases it is better to say, for example, “and live a long life” or “and live a happy life.”
In some languages “my commandments” must be expressed in the same way as “my words”. In such cases the two lines are often combined to say, for example, “Put my words well in your thinking and follow them, and you will live well.”
Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Proverbs. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2000. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .