Wisdom 14

NEW JERUSALEM	CATHOLIC PUBLIC DOMAIN
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, thinking to sail, and beginning to make his voyage through the raging waves, calls upon a piece of wood more fragile than the wood that carries him.
2 Agreed, the ship is the product of a craving for gain, its building embodies the wisdom of theshipwright;	2 For this is what desire has contrived to be acquired, and the craftsman has formed its understanding.
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 your providence, O Father, governs, because you have provided for both a way in the sea and a very reliable path among the waves,
4 showing that you can save, whatever happens, so that, even without experience, someone may put tosea.	4 revealing that you are able to save out of all things, even if someone were to go to sea without skill.
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, so that the works of your wisdom might not be empty, therefore, men trust their souls even to a little piece of wood, and, crossing over the sea by raft, they are set free.
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 But, from the beginning, when the proud giants were perishing, the hope of the world, fleeing by boat, gave back to future ages a seed of birth, which was governed by your hand.
7 For blessed is the wood which serves the cause of uprightness	7 For blessed is the wood through which justice is made.
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, through the hand that makes the idol, both it, and he who made it, is accursed: he, indeed, because it has been served by him, and it, because, though it is fragile, it is called ‘god.’
9 For God holds the godless and his godlessness in equal hatred;	9 But the impious and his impiety are similarly offensive to God.
10 both work and workman wil alike be punished.	10 For that which is made, together with him who made it, will 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 Because of this, and according to the idolatries of the nations, there will be no refuge, for the things created by God have been made into hatred, and into a temptation to the souls of men, and into a snare for the feet of the foolish.
12 The idea of making idols was the origin of fornication, their discovery corrupted life.	12 For the beginning of fornication is the search for idols, and from their invention comes corruption of life.
13 They did not exist at the beginning, they will not exist for ever;	13 For they neither existed from the beginning, nor will they exist forever.
14 human vanity brought them into the world, and a quick end is therefore reserved for them.	14 For by the great emptiness of men they came into the world, and therefore their end is soon discovered.
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, embittered with the suffering of grief, made an image of his son, who had been suddenly taken away from him, and then, he who had died as a man, now begins to be worshiped as if a god, and so rites and sacrifices are established among his servants.
16 time passes, the custom hardens and is observed as law.	16 Then, in the course of time, iniquity gains strength within this erroneous custom, so that this error has been observed as if it were a law, and this figment has been worshiped at the command 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 openly honor because they were far off, a likeness of them was carried from far off, and from it they made a similar image of the king that they wanted to honor, so that, by their solicitude, they might worship he who was absent, just as if he were present.
18 Even people who did not know him were stimulated into spreading his cult by the artist's enthusiasm;	18 Yet, it passes into their care, and those whom they did not know, they love because of the excellence of the artist.
19 for the latter, doubtless wishing to please his ruler, exerted all his skill to surpass the reality,	19 For he, wishing to please the one who hired him, embellished his art, so as to fashion a better likeness.
20 and the crowd, attracted by the beauty of the work, mistook for a god someone whom recently theyhad honoured as a man.	20 But the multitude of men, brought together by the beauty of the work, now considered him to be a god, whom they had formerly honored 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 deception of human life: that men, serving either their own inclination or their kings, assigned the unutterable 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 go astray concerning the knowledge of God, but also, while living in a great war of ignorance, they call so many and such 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 sons, or they make dark sacrifices, or they hold vigils 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 protect life, nor preserve a clean marriage, but one kills another through envy, or grieves him by adultery.
25 Everywhere a welter of blood and murder, theft and fraud, corruption, treachery, riot, perjury,	25 And all things are mixed together: blood, murder, theft and fraud, corruption and infidelity, disturbances and perjury, disorder within good things,
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, pollution of souls, alteration of procreation, inconstancy of marriage, unnatural adultery and homosexuality.
27 For the worship of idols with no name is the beginning, cause, and end of every evil.	27 For the worship of unspeakable idols is the cause, and the beginning and the 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 they either act with madness while happy, or they insistently speak wild lies, or they live unjustly, or they are quick to commit perjury.
29 since they put their trust in lifeless idols they do not reckon their false oaths can harm them.	29 For, while they trust in idols, which are without a soul, vowing evil, they hope not to be harmed themselves.
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 Therefore, from both sides it will fittingly happen, because they have thought evil of God, paying attention to idols, and because they 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 swearing is not virtue, but sinning always comes around to a punishment according to the transgression of the unjust.