The In-Dept Study of the Bible
Solomon 14
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.
2 For the hunger for profit planned it,
and wisdom was the craftsman who built it.
3 Your providence, O Father, guides it
along, because even in the sea you gave a
way, and in the waves a sure path,
4 showing that you can save out of every
danger, that even a man without skill may put
to sea.
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.
6 For† in the old time also, when proud
giants were perishing,
the hope ofthe world,taking refuge on
a raft, your hand guided the seed of
generations of the race of men.
7 For blessed is wood through which comes
righteousness;
8 but the idol made with hands is accursed,
it self and he that made it;
because his was the working, and the
corruptible thing was called a god.
9 For both the ungodly and his ungodliness
are alike hateful to God;
10 for truly the deed will be punished
together with him who committed
it.
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.
12 For the devising of idols was the beginning of fornication,
and the invention of them the corruption of life.
13 For they didn’t exist from the beginning,
and they won’t exist forever.
14 For by the boastfulness of men they e
ntered into the world,
and therefore a speedy end was
planned for them.
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.
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.
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.
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;
19 for he, wishing perhaps to please his
ruler, used his art to force the likeness
toward a greater beauty.
20 So the multitude, allured by reason of
the grace of his handiwork,
now consider an object of devotion
him that a little before was honored
as a man.
21 And this became an ambush,
because men, in bondage either to
calamity or to tyranny,
invested stones and stocks with the
Name that shouldn’t be shared.
22 Afterward it was not enough for them to
go astray concerning the knowledge
of God, but also, while they live in a great war
ofignorance,they call amultitude of
evils peace.
23 For either slaughtering children in
solemn rites, or celebrating secret
mysteries, or holding frenzied revels of strange
customs,
24 no longer do they guard either life or
purity of marriage, but one brings upon another either
death by treachery, or anguish by adultery.
25 And all things confusedly are filled with
blood and murder, theft and deceit,
corruption, faithlessness, tumult, perjury,
26 confusion about what is good, forgetfulness of favors,
ingratitude for benefits, defiling of souls, confusion of sex,
disorder in marriage, adultery and wantonness.
27 For the worship ofidols that maynot
be named * is a beginning and cause and end of
every evil.
28 For their worshipers either make merry
to madness, or prophesy lies, or live unrighteously,
or lightly commit perjury.
29 For putting their trust in lifeless idols,
when they have sworn a wicked oath,
they expect not to suffer harm.
30 But on both counts, the just doom will
pursue them, because they had evil thoughts of God
by giving heed to idols, and swore unrighteously in deceit
through contempt for holiness.
31 For it is not the power of things by which
men swear, but it is the just penalty for those who
sin that always visits the transgression of
the unrighteous.