Wisdom 14

NEW JERUSALEM	DOUAI-RHEIMS
1 Or someone else, taking ship to cross the wild waves, loudly invokes a piece of wood frailer than thevessel that bears him.	1 Again, another designing to sail, and beginning to make his voyage through the raging waves, calleth upon a piece of wood more frail than the wood that carrieth him.
2 Agreed, the ship is the product of a craving for gain, its building embodies the wisdom of theshipwright;	2 For this the desire of gain devised, and the workman built it by his skill.
3 but your providence, Father, is what steers it, you having opened a pathway even through the sea, anda safe way over the waves,	3 But thy providence, O Father, governeth it: for thou hast made a way even in the sea, and a most sure path among the waves,
4 showing that you can save, whatever happens, so that, even without experience, someone may put tosea.	4 Shewing that thou art able to save out of all things, yea though a man went to sea without art.
5 It is not your will that the works of your Wisdom should be sterile, so people entrust their lives to thesmal est piece of wood, cross the waves on a raft, yet are kept safe and sound.	5 But that the works of thy wisdom might not be idle: therefore men also trust their lives even to a little wood, and passing over the sea by ship are saved.
6 Why, in the beginning, when the proud giants were perishing, the hope of the world took refuge on araft and, steered by your hand, preserved the seed of a new generation for the ages to come.	6 And from the beginning also when the proud giants perished, the hope of the world fleeing to a vessel, which was governed by thy hand, left to the world seed of generation.
7 For blessed is the wood which serves the cause of uprightness	7 For blessed is the wood, by which justice cometh.
8 but accursed the man-made idol, yes, it and its maker, he for having made it, and it because, though perishable, it has been called god.	8 But the idol that is made by hands, is cursed, as well it, as he that made it: he because he made it; and it because being frail it is called a god.
9 For God holds the godless and his godlessness in equal hatred;	9 But to God the wicked and his wickedness are hateful alike.
10 both work and workman wil alike be punished.	10 For that which is made, together with him that made it, shall suffer torments.
11 Hence even the idols of the nations wil have a visitation since, in God's creation, they have becomean abomination, a scandal for human souls, a snare for the feet of the foolish.	11 Therefore there shall be no respect had even to the idols of the Gentiles: because the creatures of God are turned to an abomination, and a temptation to the souls of men, and a snare to the feet of the unwise.
12 The idea of making idols was the origin of fornication, their discovery corrupted life.	12 For the beginning of fornication is the devising of idols: and the invention of them is the corruption of life.
13 They did not exist at the beginning, they will not exist for ever;	13 For neither were they from the beginning, neither shall they be for ever.
14 human vanity brought them into the world, and a quick end is therefore reserved for them.	14 For by the vanity of men they came into the world: and therefore they shall be found to come shortly to an end.
15 A father afflicted by untimely mourning has an image made of his child so soon carried off, and nowpays divine honours to what yesterday was only a corpse, handing on mysteries and ceremonies to his people;	15 For a father being afflicted with bitter grief, made to himself the image of his son who was quickly taken away: and him who then had died as a man, he began now to worship as a god, and appointed him rites and sacrifices among his servants.
16 time passes, the custom hardens and is observed as law.	16 Then in process of time, wicked custom prevailing, this error was kept as a law, and statues were worshipped by the commandment of tyrants.
17 Rulers were the ones who ordered that statues should be worshipped: people who could not honourthem in person, because they lived too far away, would have a portrait made of their distant countenance, tohave an image that they could see of the king whom they honoured; meaning, by such zeal, to flatter the absentas if he were present.	17 And those whom men could not honour in presence, because they dwelt far off, they brought their resemblance from afar, and made an express image of the king whom they had a mind to honour: that by this their diligence, they might honour as present, him that was absent.
18 Even people who did not know him were stimulated into spreading his cult by the artist's enthusiasm;	18 And to worshipping of these, the singular diligence also of the artificer helped to set forward the ignorant.
19 for the latter, doubtless wishing to please his ruler, exerted all his skill to surpass the reality,	19 For he being willing to please him that employed him, laboured with all his art to make the resemblance in the best manner.
20 and the crowd, attracted by the beauty of the work, mistook for a god someone whom recently theyhad honoured as a man.	20 And the multitude of men, carried away by the beauty of the work, took him now for a god that a little before was but honoured as a man.
21 And this became a snare for life: that people, whether enslaved by misfortune or by tyranny, shouldhave conferred the ineffable Name on sticks and stones.	21 And this was the occasion of deceiving human life: for men serving either their affection, or their kings, gave the incommunicable name to stones and wood.
22 It is not enough, however, for them to have such misconceptions about God; for, living in the fiercewarfare of ignorance, they call these terrible evils peace.	22 And it was not enough for them to err about the knowledge of God, but whereas they lived in a great war of ignorance, they call so many and so great evils peace.
23 With their child-murdering rites, their occult mysteries, or their frenzied orgies with outlandishcustoms,	23 For either they sacrifice their own children, or use hidden sacrifices, or keep watches full of madness,
24 they no longer retain any purity in their lives or their marriages, one treacherously murdering anotheror wronging him by adultery.	24 So that now they neither keep life, nor marriage undefiled, but one killeth another through envy, or grieveth him by adultery:
25 Everywhere a welter of blood and murder, theft and fraud, corruption, treachery, riot, perjury,	25 And all things are mingled together, blood, murder, theft and dissimulation, corruption and unfaithfulness, tumults and perjury, disquieting of the good,
26 disturbance of decent people, forgetfulness of favours, pol ution of souls, sins against nature,disorder in marriage, adultery and debauchery.	26 Forgetfulness of God, defiling of souls, changing of nature, disorder in marriage, and the irregularity of adultery and uncleaness.
27 For the worship of idols with no name is the beginning, cause, and end of every evil.	27 For the worship of abominable idols is the cause, and the beginning and end of all evil.
28 For these people either carry their merrymaking to the point of frenzy, or they prophesy what is nottrue, or they live wicked lives, or they perjure themselves without hesitation;	28 For either they are mad when they are merry: or they prophesy lies, or they live unjustly, or easily forswear themselves.
29 since they put their trust in lifeless idols they do not reckon their false oaths can harm them.	29 For whilst they trust in idols, which are without life, though they swear amiss, they look not to be hurt.
30 But they wil be justly punished for this double crime: for degrading the concept of God by adhering toidols; and for wickedly perjuring themselves in contempt for what is holy.	30 But for two things they shall be justly punished, because they have thought not well of God, giving heed to idols, and have sworn unjustly, in guile despising justice.
31 For it is not the power of the things by which they swear but the punishment reserved for sinners thatalways fol ows the offences of wicked people.	31 For it is not the power of them, by whom they swear, but the just vengeance of sinners always punisheth the transgression of the unjust.