The In-Dept Study of the Bible
Solomon 15
1 But you, our God, are gracious and true,
patient, and in mercy ordering all things.
2 For even if we sin, we are yours, knowing
your dominion; but we will not sin, knowing that we
have been accounted yours.
3 For to be acquainted with you is† perfect
righteousness, and to know your dominion
is the root of immortality.
4 For we weren’t led astray by any
evil plan of men’s, nor yet by painters’
fruitless labor, a form stained with varied colors,
5 the sight of which leads fools into‡ lust.
Their desire is for the breathless form
of a dead image.
6 Lovers of evil things, and worthy of such
hopes, are those who make, desire, and worship them.
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 sort,
the potter is the judge.
8 Also, laboring to an evil end, he molds a
vain god out of the same clay,
he who, having but a little before been
made of earth, after a short space
goes his way to the earth out of which
he was taken, when he is required to
render back the§ soul which was lent him.
9 However he has anxious care,
not because his powers must fail,
nor because his span of life is short;
But he compares himself with goldsmiths
and silversmiths, and he imitates molders in† brass,
and considers it great that he molds counterfeit gods.
10 His heart is ashes. His hope is of
less value than earth. His life is of
less honor than clay,
11 because he was ignorant of him who
molded him, and of him that inspired
into him‡ anactive § soul, and breathed
into him a vital spirit.
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.
13 For this man, beyond all others, knows
that he sins, out of earthy matter
making brittleves sels and engraved images.
14 But most foolish and more miserable
than a baby, are the enemies of your
people, whooppre ssed them;
15 because they even considered all the
idols of the nations to be gods,
which have neither the use of eyes for
seeing, nor nostrils for drawing breath,
nor ears to hear, nor fingers for handling,
and their feet are helpless for walking.
16 For a man made them, and one whose own spir it is borrowed
molded them;for no one has power as a man to mold
a god like himself.
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 indeed had life, but they
never did.
18 Yes, and they worship the creatures that
are most hateful, for, being compared as
to lack of sense, these are worse than
all others;
19 Neither, as seen beside other creatures,
are they beautiful, so that one should desire them,
but they have escaped both the praise
of God and his blessing.