Wisdom of Solomon, chapter 14

14: 1-31 (Translated by Edgar J. Goodspeed)
Again, a man setting out on a voyage, and about to travel over wild waves, calls upon a piece of wood more unsound than the ship that carries him. For it was designed through the desire for gain, and Wisdom was the craftsman that built it. And Your providence, Father, pilots it, for You give a way even in the sea, and a safe path through the waves, showing that You can save from anything, so that even without skill a person may go to sea (i.e. Noah). But it is Your will that the works of Your Wisdom should not be idle; therefore men trust their lives to even the smallest plank, and cross the flood/billows on a raft and get safely over. For in the beginning, when the haughty giants perished, the hope of the world took refuge on a raft (ark of Noah), and steered by Your hand left to the world a generating germ/seed, for blessed is wood/the plank through which uprightness comes, but what/the idol is made with hands is accursed, along with the man who made it, because he shaped it, and what was perishable was called a god. For the ungodly man and his ungodliness are equally hateful to God. For what is done must be punished with the man who did it. Therefore there will be an examination of the idols of the heathen, for, although a part of God's creation, they became an abomination, and snares to the souls of men, and a trap for the feet of the foolish. For the devising of idols is the beginning of fornication, and the invention of them is the corruption of life. for they did not exist from the beginning, and they will not last forever; for through the vanity/empty illusions of men they came into the world, and therefore a speedy end for them was designed. For a father afflicted with untimely grief made a likeness of his child, that had been quickly taken from him, and presently honored as a god him who was once a dead man, and handed down to his subjects mysteries and rites. Then the ungodly practice, strengthened by time, came to be observed as law. And by the orders of monarchs carved images were worshiped. And when men could not honor them in their presence, because they lived far away, they imagined how they looked , far away, and made a visible/palpable image of the king they honored, so as by their zeal to flatter the absent one as though he were present. But the ambition of the artist stimulated even those who did not know the subject to intensified worship; for he, perhaps wishing to gratify someone in authority, elaborated the likeness by his art into greater beauty; and the multitude, attracted by the charm of his workmanship, now regarded as an object of worship (Greek: Sebasma) the one whom they had recently honored as a man. And this proved an ambush for man's life, because men in bondage to misfortune or royal authority clothed sticks and stones with the Name that cannot be shared with others. And then it was not enough for them to go astray about the knowledge of God, but though living in a great war of ignorance, they calls such evils peace. For neither while they murder children in their rites nor celebrate secret mysteries, nor hold frenzied revels with alien laws do they keep their lives or marriages pure, but one man waylays another and kills him, or grieves him by adultery. And it is all confusion of blood and murder, theft and fraud, depravity, faithlessness, discord, perjury, clamor at the good, forgetfulness of favors, defilement of souls, confusion of sex (roles), irregularity in marriage, adultery, and indecency/debauchery. For the worship of the unspeakable idols is the beginning and cause and end of every evil. For they/the worshipers either rejoice in madness, or prophesy falsely, or live unrighteously, or readily forswear themselves. For since they believe in lifeless idols, they do not expect to be harmed for swearing wickedly. But justice will overtake them for both matters, because they thought wickedly of God and gave heed to idols, and because they swore unrighteously to deceive, in disregard of holiness. For it is not in the power of the gods men swear by, but the penalty of those who sin that always pursues the transgression of the unrighteous.