| 14 | Wisdom of Solomon | ||
| 1 | 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. | Idols. Wis.14.1-11 | |
| 2 | For it was desire for gain that planned that vessel, and wisdom was the craftsman who built it; | ||
| 3 | but it is your providence, O Father, that steers its course, because you have given it a path in the sea, and a safe way through the waves, | ||
| 4 | showing that you can save from every danger, so that even if a man lacks skill, he may put to sea. | ||
| 5 | It is your will that works of your 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 your hand left to the world the seed of a new generation. | ||
| 7 | For blessed is the wood by which righteousness comes. | ||
| 8 | But the idol made with hands is accursed, and so is he who made it; because he did the work, and the perishable thing was named a god. | ||
| 9 | For equally hateful to God are the ungodly man and his ungodliness, | ||
| 10 | for what was done will be punished together with him who did it. | ||
| 11 | Therefore there will be a visitation also upon the heathen idols, because, though part of what God created, they became an abomination, and became traps for the souls of men and a snare to the feet of the foolish. | ||
| 12 | For the idea of making idols was the beginning of fornication, and the invention of them was the corruption of life, | Origins of idolatry. Wis.14.12-21 | |
| 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 honoured 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 worshipped. | ||
| 17 | When men could not honour monarchs 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 honoured, 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 honoured 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. | ||
| 22 | Afterward it was not enough for them to err about the knowledge of God, but they live in great strife due to ignorance, and they call such great evils peace. | Results of idolatry. Wis.14.22-31 | |
| 23 | For whether they kill children in their initiations, or celebrate secret mysteries, or hold frenzied revels with strange customs, | ||
| 24 | they no longer keep either their lives or their marriages pure, but they either treacherously kill one another, or grieve one another by adultery, | ||
| 25 | and all is a raging riot of blood and murder, theft and deceit, corruption, faithlessness, tumult, perjury, | ||
| 26 | confusion over what is good, forgetfulness of favours, pollution of souls, sex perversion, disorder in marriage, adultery, and debauchery. | ||
| 27 | For the worship of idols not to be named is the beginning and cause and end of every evil. | ||
| 28 | For their worshippers either rave in exultation, or prophesy lies, or live unrighteously, or readily commit perjury; | ||
| 29 | for because they trust in lifeless idols they swear wicked oaths and expect to suffer no harm. | ||
| 30 | But just penalties will overtake them on two counts: because they thought wickedly of God in devoting themselves to idols, and because in deceit they swore unrighteously through contempt for holiness. | ||
| 31 | For it is not the power of the things by which men swear, but the just penalty for those who sin, that always pursues the transgression of the unrighteous. | ||
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