Wisdom 15

NEW JERUSALEM	NEW AMERICAN BIBLE
1 But you, our God, are kind and true, slow to anger, governing the universe with mercy.	1 But you, our God, are good and true, slow to anger, and governing all with mercy.
2 Even if we sin, we are yours, since we acknowledge your power, but we wil not sin, knowing we countas yours.	2 For even if we sin, we are yours, and know your might; but we will not sin, knowing that we belong to you.
3 To know you is indeed the perfect virtue, and to know your power is the root of immortality.	3 For to know you well is complete justice, and to know your might is the root of immortality.
4 We have not been duped by inventions of misapplied human skil , or by the sterile work of painters, byfigures daubed with assorted colours,	4 For neither did the evil creation of men's fancy deceive us, nor the fruitless labor of painters, A form smeared with varied colors,
5 the sight of which sets fools yearning and hankering for the lifeless form of an unbreathing image.	5 the sight of which arouses yearning in the senseless man, till he longs for the inanimate form of a dead image.
6 Lovers of evil and worthy of such hopes are those who make them, those who want them and thosewho worship them.	6 Lovers of evil things, and worthy of such hopes are they who make them and long for them and worship them.
7 Take a potter, now, laboriously working the soft earth, shaping each object for us to use. Out of theself-same clay, he models vessels intended for a noble use and those for a contrary purpose, al alike: but whichof these two uses each wil have is for the potter himself to decide.	7 For truly the potter, laboriously working the soft earth, molds for our service each several article: Both the vessels that serve for clean purposes and their opposites, all alike; As to what shall be the use of each vessel of either class the worker in clay is the judge.
8 Then -- il -- spent effort!-from the same clay he models a futile god, although so recently made out ofearth himself and shortly to return to what he was taken from, when asked to give back the soul that has beenlent to him.	8 And with misspent toil he molds a meaningless god from the selfsame clay; though he himself shortly before was made from the earth And after a little, is to go whence he was taken, when the life that was lent him is demanded back.
9 Even so, he does not worry about having to die or about the shortness of his life, but strives to outdothe goldsmiths and silversmiths, imitates the bronzeworkers, and prides himself on model ing counterfeits.	9 But his concern is not that he is to die nor that his span of life is brief; Rather, he vies with goldsmiths and silversmiths and emulates molders of bronze, and takes pride in modeling counterfeits.
10 Ashes, his heart; more vile than earth, his hope; more wretched than clay, his life!	10 Ashes his heart is! more worthless than earth is his hope, and more ignoble than clay his life;
11 For he has misconceived the One who has model ed him, who breathed an active soul into him andinspired a living spirit.	11 Because he knew not the one who fashioned him, and breathed into him a quickening soul, and infused a vital spirit.
12 What is more, he looks on this life of ours as a kind of game, and our time here like a fair, ful of bargains. 'However foul the means,' he says, 'a man must make a living.'	12 Instead, he esteemed our life a plaything, and our span of life a holiday for gain; "For one must," says he, "make profit every way, be it even out of evil."
13 He, more than any other, knows he is sinning, he who from one earthy stuff makes both brittle potsand idols.	13 For this man more than any knows that he is sinning, when out of earthen stuff he creates fragile vessels and idols alike.
14 But most foolish, more pitiable even than the soul of a little child, are the enemies who once playedthe tyrant with your people,	14 But all quite senseless, and worse than childish in mind, are the enemies of your people who enslaved them.
15 and have taken al the idols of the heathen for gods; these can use neither their eyes for seeing northeir nostrils for breathing the air nor their ears for hearing nor the fingers on their hands for handling nor theirfeet for walking.	15 For they esteemed all the idols of the nations gods, which have no use of the eyes for vision, nor nostrils to snuff the air, Nor ears to hear, nor fingers on their hands for feeling; even their feet are useless to walk with.
16 They have been made, you see, by a human being, modelled by a being whose own breath isborrowed. No man can model a god to resemble himself;	16 For a man made them; one whose spirit has been lent him fashioned them. For no man succeeds in fashioning a god like himself;
17 subject to death, his impious hands can produce only something dead. He himself is worthier thanthe things he worships; he wil at least have lived, but never they.	17 being mortal, he makes a dead thing with his lawless hands. For he is better than the things he worships; he at least lives, but never they.
18 And they worship even the most loathsome of animals, worse than the rest in their degree ofstupidity,	18 And besides, they worship the most loathsome beasts-- for compared as to folly, these are worse than the rest,
19 without a trace of beauty -- if that is what is attractive in animals- and excluded from God's praisesand blessing.	19 Nor for their looks are they good or desirable beasts, but they have escaped both the approval of God and his blessing.