Wisdom of Solomon 14:1–31

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) ³ Your providence, O Father, guides it along, because even in the sea you gave a way, and in the waves a sure path, (WEB) ⁴ showing that you can save out of every danger, that even a man without skill may put to sea. (WEB) ⁵ It is your will that the works of your wisdom should not be ineffective. Therefore men also entrust their lives to a little piece of wood, and passing through the surge on a raft come safely to land. (WEB) ⁶ For in the old time also, when proud giants were perishing, the hope of the world, taking refuge on a raft, your hand guided the seed of generations of the race of men. (WEB) ⁷ For blessed is wood through which comes righteousness; (WEB) ⁸ but the idol made with hands is accursed, itself and he that made it; because his was the working, and the corruptible thing was called a god. (WEB) ⁹ For both the ungodly and his ungodliness are alike hateful to God; (WEB) ¹⁰ for truly the deed will be punished together with him who committed it. (WEB) ¹¹ Therefore also there will be a visitation among the idols of the nation, because, though formed of things which God created, they were made an abomination, stumbling blocks to the souls of men, and a snare to the feet of the foolish. (WEB) ¹² For the devising of idols was the beginning of fornication, and the invention of them the corruption of life. (WEB) ¹³ For they didn’t exist from the beginning, and they won’t exist forever. (WEB) ¹⁴ For by the boastfulness of men they entered into the world, and therefore a speedy end was planned for them. (WEB) ¹⁵ For a father worn with untimely grief, making an image of the child quickly taken away, now honored him as a god which was then a dead human being, and delivered to those that were under him mysteries and solemn rites. (WEB) ¹⁶ Afterward the ungodly custom, in process of time grown strong, was kept as a law, and the engraved images received worship by the commandments of princes. (WEB) ¹⁷ And when men could not honor them in presence because they lived far off, imagining the likeness from afar, they made a visible image of the king whom they honored, that by their zeal they might flatter the absent as if present. (WEB) ¹⁸ But worship was raised to a yet higher pitch, even by those who didn’t know him, urged forward by the ambition of the architect; (WEB) ¹⁹ for he, wishing perhaps to please his ruler, used his art to force the likeness toward a greater beauty. (WEB) ²⁰ So the multitude, allured by reason of the grace of his handiwork, now consider an object of devotion him that a littl… (WEB)