Wisdom 15:1-6

Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition

15 But thou, our God, art kind and true,
patient, and ruling all things^[a] 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^[b] the lifeless form of a dead image.
⁶ Lovers of evil things and fit for such objects of hope^[c]
are those who either make or desire or worship them.