Wisdom 15

NEW JERUSALEM	VULGATA
1 But you, our God, are kind and true, slow to anger, governing the universe with mercy.	1 Tu autem, Deus noster, suavis et verus es, patiens, et in misericordia disponens omnia.
2 Even if we sin, we are yours, since we acknowledge your power, but we wil not sin, knowing we countas yours.	2 Etenim si peccaverimus, tui sumus, scientes magnitudinem tuam ; et si non peccaverimus, scimus quoniam apud te sumus computati.
3 To know you is indeed the perfect virtue, and to know your power is the root of immortality.	3 Nosse enim te, consummata justitia est ; et scire justitiam et virtutem tuam, radix est immortalitatis.
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 Non enim in errorem induxit nos hominum malæ artis excogitatio, nec umbra picturæ labor sine fructu, effigies sculpta per varios colores :
5 the sight of which sets fools yearning and hankering for the lifeless form of an unbreathing image.	5 cujus aspectus insensato dat concupiscentiam, et diligit mortuæ imaginis effigiem sine anima.
6 Lovers of evil and worthy of such hopes are those who make them, those who want them and thosewho worship them.	6 Malorum amatores digni sunt qui spem habeant in talibus, et qui faciunt illos, et qui diligunt, et qui colunt.
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 Sed et figulus mollem terram premens, laboriose fingit ad usus nostros unumquodque vas ; et de eodem luto fingit quæ munda sunt in usum vasa, et similiter quæ his sunt contraria : horum autem vasorum quis sit usus, judex est figulus.
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 Et cum labore vano deum fingit de eodem luto ille qui paulo ante de terra factus fuerat, et post pusillum reducit se unde acceptus est, repetitus animæ debitum quam habebat.
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 Sed cura est illi non quia laboraturus est, nec quoniam brevis illi vita est : sed concertatur aurificibus et argentariis ; sed et ærarios imitatur, et gloriam præfert, quoniam res supervacuas fingit.
10 Ashes, his heart; more vile than earth, his hope; more wretched than clay, his life!	10 Cinis est enim cor ejus, et terra supervacua spes illius, et luto vilior vita ejus :
11 For he has misconceived the One who has model ed him, who breathed an active soul into him andinspired a living spirit.	11 quoniam ignoravit qui se finxit, et qui inspiravit illi animam quæ operatur, et qui insufflavit ei spiritum vitalem.
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 Sed et æstimaverunt ludum esse vitam nostram, et conversationem vitæ compositam ad lucrum, et oportere undecumque etiam ex malo acquirere.
13 He, more than any other, knows he is sinning, he who from one earthy stuff makes both brittle potsand idols.	13 Hic enim scit se super omnes delinquere, qui ex terræ materia fragilia vasa et sculptilia fingit.
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 Omnes enim insipientes, et infelices supra modum animæ superbi, sunt inimici populi tui, et imperantes illi :
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 quoniam omnia idola nationum deos æstimaverunt, quibus neque oculorum usus est ad videndum, neque nares ad percipiendum spiritum, neque aures ad audiendum, neque digiti manuum ad tractandum, sed et pedes eorum pigri ad ambulandum.
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 Homo enim fecit illos ; et qui spiritum mutuatus est, is finxit illos. Nemo enim sibi similem homo poterit deum fingere.
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 Cum enim sit mortalis, mortuum fingit manibus iniquis. Melior enim est ipse his quos colit, quia ipse quidem vixit, cum esset mortalis, illi autem numquam.
18 And they worship even the most loathsome of animals, worse than the rest in their degree ofstupidity,	18 Sed et animalia miserrima colunt ; insensata enim comparata his, illis sunt deteriora.
19 without a trace of beauty -- if that is what is attractive in animals- and excluded from God's praisesand blessing.	19 Sed nec aspectu aliquis ex his animalibus bona potest conspicere : effugerunt autem Dei laudem et benedictionem ejus.