Wisdom 14-15

Revised Standard Version

14 Again, one preparing to sail and about to voyage over raging waves
calls upon a piece of wood more fragile than the ship which carries him.
² For it was desire for gain that planned that vessel,
and wisdom was the craftsman who built it;
³ but it is thy providence, O Father, that steers its course,
because thou hast given it a path in the sea,
and a safe way through the waves,
⁴ showing that thou canst save from every danger,
so that even if a man lacks skill, he may put to sea.
⁵ It is thy will that works of thy wisdom should not be without effect;
therefore men trust their lives even to the smallest piece of wood,
and passing through the billows on a raft they come safely to land.
⁶ For even in the beginning, when arrogant giants were perishing,
the hope of the world took refuge on a raft,
and guided by thy hand left to the world the seed of a new generation.
⁷ For blessed is the wood by which righteousness comes.

¹² For the idea of making idols was the beginning of fornication,
and the invention of them was the corruption of life,
¹³ for neither have they existed from the beginning
nor will they exist for ever.
¹⁴ For through the vanity of men they entered the world,
and therefore their speedy end has been planned.
¹⁵ For a father, consumed with grief at an untimely bereavement,
made an image of his child, who had been suddenly taken from him;
and he now honored as a god what was once a dead human being,
and handed on to his dependents secret rites and initiations.
¹⁶ Then the ungodly custom, grown strong with time, was kept as a law,
and at the command of monarchs graven images were worshiped.
¹⁷ When men could not honor monarchs^[a] in their presence, since they lived at a distance,
they imagined their appearance far away,
and made a visible image of the king whom they honored,
so that by their zeal they might flatter the absent one as though present.
¹⁸ Then the ambition of the craftsman impelled
even those who did not know the king to intensify their worship.
¹⁹ For he, perhaps wishing to please his ruler,
skilfully forced the likeness to take more beautiful form,
²⁰ and the multitude, attracted by the charm of his work,
now regarded as an object of worship the one whom shortly before they had honored as a man.
²¹ And this became a hidden trap for mankind,
because men, in bondage to misfortune or to royal authority,
bestowed on objects of stone or wood the name that ought not to be shared.

15 But thou, our God, art kind and true,
patient, and ruling all things^[d] in mercy.
² For even if we sin we are thine, knowing thy power;
but we will not sin, because we know that we are accounted thine.
³ For to know thee is complete righteousness,
and to know thy power is the root of immortality.
⁴ For neither has the evil intent of human art misled us,
nor the fruitless toil of painters,
a figure stained with varied colors,
⁵ whose appearance arouses yearning in fools,
so that they desire^[e] the lifeless form of a dead image.
⁶ Lovers of evil things and fit for such objects of hope^[f]
are those who either make or desire or worship them.

⁷ For when a potter kneads the soft earth
and laboriously molds each vessel for our service,
he fashions out of the same clay
both the vessels that serve clean uses
and those for contrary uses, making all in like manner;
but which shall be the use of each of these
the worker in clay decides.
⁸ With misspent toil, he forms a futile god from the same clay—
this man who was made of earth a short time before
and after a little while goes to the earth from which he was taken,
when he is required to return the soul that was lent him.
⁹ But he is not concerned that he is destined to die
or that his life is brief,
but he competes with workers in gold and silver,
and imitates workers in copper;
and he counts it his glory that he molds counterfeit gods.
¹⁰ His heart is ashes, his hope is cheaper than dirt,
and his life is of less worth than clay,
¹¹ because he failed to know the one who formed him
and inspired him with an active soul
and breathed into him a living spirit.
¹² But he^[g] considered our existence an idle game,
and life a festival held for profit,
for he says one must get money however one can, even by base means.
¹³ For this man, more than all others, knows that he sins
when he makes from earthy matter fragile vessels and graven images.

¹⁸ The enemies of thy people^[i] worship even the most hateful animals,
which are worse than all others, when judged by their lack of intelligence;
¹⁹ and even as animals they are not so beautiful in appearance that one would desire them,
but they have escaped both the praise of God and his blessing.