11 Yes and some woodcutter might saw down a tree that is easily moved, skillfully strip away all its bark, and fashion it in attractive form, make a useful vessel to serve his life’s needs. (WEB) 12 Burning the scraps from his handiwork to cook his food, he eats his fill. (WEB) 13 Taking a discarded scrap which served no purpose, a crooked piece of wood and full of knots, he carves it with the diligence of his idleness, and shapes it by the skill of his idleness. He shapes it in the image of a man, (WEB) 14 or makes it like some worthless animal, smearing it with something red, painting it red, and smearing over every stain in it. (WEB) 15 Having made a worthy chamber for it, he sets it in a wall, securing it with iron. (WEB) 16 He plans for it that it may not fall down, knowing that it is unable to help itself (for truly it is an image, and needs help). (WEB) 17 When he makes his prayer concerning goods and his marriage and children, he is not ashamed to speak to that which has no life. (WEB) 18 Yes, for health, he calls upon that which is weak. For life, he implores that which is dead. For aid, he supplicates that which has no experience. For a good journey, he asks that which can’t so much as move a step. (WEB) 19 And for profit in business and good success of his hands, he asks ability from that which has hands with no ability. (WEB)
Wisdom of Solomon 13:11–19
Semantically similar passages
Wisdom of Solomon 15:7–9
7 For a potter, kneading soft earth, laboriously molds each article for our service. He fashions out of the same clay both the vessels that minister to clean uses, and those of a contrary sort, all in like manner. What shall be the use of each article of either… (WEB)
Isaiah 40:19–21
19 To an idol that a craftsman casts and a metalworker overlays with gold and fits with silver chains? 20 To one bereft of an offering who chooses wood that will not rot, who seeks a skilled craftsman to set up an idol that will not topple? 21 Do you not know? Have you…
Wisdom of Solomon 15:12–14
12 But he accounted our life to be a game, and our lifetime a festival for profit; for, he says, one must get gain however one can, even if it is by evil. (WEB) 13 For this man, beyond all others, knows that he sins, out of earthy matter making brittle vessels and engrave… (WEB)
Wisdom of Solomon 15:16–18
16 For a man made them, and one whose own spirit is borrowed molded them; for no one has power as a man to mold a god like himself. (WEB) 17 But, being mortal, he makes a dead thing by the work of lawless hands; for he is better than the objects of his worship, since he i… (WEB)
Isaiah 44:14–16
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Sirach 38:25–27
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Baruch 6:14–16
14 And he who can’t put to death one who offends against him holds a sceptre, as though he were judge of a country. (WEB) 15 He has also a dagger in his right hand, and an axe, but can’t deliver himself from war and robbers. (WEB) 16 By this they are known not to be gods. Therefore… (WEB)
Wisdom of Solomon 14:1–2
1 Again, one preparing to sail, and about to journey over raging waves, calls upon a piece of wood more fragile than the vessel that carries him. (WEB) 2 For the hunger for profit planned it, and wisdom was the craftsman who built it. (WEB)
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