Wisdom of Solomon 12:12–19:22

12 For who will say, “What hast thou done?”

Or will resist thy judgment?

Who will accuse thee for the destruction of nations which thou didst make?

Or who will come before thee to plead as an advocate for unrighteous men?

13 For neither is there any god besides thee, whose care is for all men,

to whom thou shouldst prove that thou hast not judged unjustly;

14 nor can any king or monarch confront thee about those whom thou hast punished.

15 Thou art righteous and rulest all things righteously,

deeming it alien to thy power

to condemn him who does not deserve to be punished.

16 For thy strength is the source of righteousness,

and thy sovereignty over all causes thee to spare all.

17 For thou dost show thy strength when men doubt the completeness of thy power,

and dost rebuke any insolence among those who know it.

18 Thou who art sovereign in strength dost judge with mildness,

and with great forbearance thou dost govern us;

for thou hast power to act whenever thou dost choose.

19 Through such works thou has taught thy people

that the righteous man must be kind,

and thou hast filled thy sons with good hope,

because thou givest repentance for sins.

20 For if thou didst punish with such great care and indulgence

the enemies of thy servants and those deserving of death,

granting them time and opportunity to give up their wickedness,

21 with what strictness thou hast judged thy sons,

to whose fathers thou gavest oaths and covenants full of good promises!

22 So while chastening us thou scourgest our enemies ten thousand times more,

so that we may meditate upon thy goodness when we judge,

and when we are judged we may expect mercy.

23 Therefore those who in folly of life lived unrighteously

thou didst torment through their own abominations.

24 For they went far astray on the paths of error,

accepting as gods those animals which even their enemies despised;

they were deceived like foolish babes.

25 Therefore, as to thoughtless children,

thou didst send thy judgment to mock them.

26 But those who have not heeded the warning of light rebukes

will experience the deserved judgment of God.

27 For when in their suffering they became incensed

at those creatures which they had thought to be gods, being punished by means of them,

they saw and recognized as the true God him whom they had before refused to know.

Therefore the utmost condemnation came upon them.

Chapter 13

1 For all men who were ignorant of God were foolish by nature;

and they were unable from the good things that are seen to know him who exists,

nor did they recognize the craftsman while paying heed to his works;

2 but they supposed that either fire or wind or swift air,

or the circle of the stars, or turbulent water,

or the luminaries of heaven were the gods that rule the world.

3 If through delight in the beauty of these things men assumed them to be gods,

let them know how much better than these is their Lord,

for the author of beauty created them.

4 And if men were amazed at their power and working,

let them perceive from them

how much more powerful is he who formed them.

5 For from the greatness and beauty of created things

comes a corresponding perception of their Creator.

6 Yet these men are little to be blamed,

for perhaps they go astray

while seeking God and desiring to find him.

7 For as they live among his works they keep searching,

and they trust in what they see, because the things that are seen are beautiful.

8 Yet again, not even they are to be excused;

9 for if they had the power to know so much

that they could investigate the world,

how did they fail to find sooner the Lord of these things?

10 But miserable, with their hopes set on dead things, are the men

who give the name “gods” to the works of men’s hands,

gold and silver fashioned with skill,

and likenesses of animals,

or a useless stone, the work of an ancient hand.

11 A skilled woodcutter may saw down a tree easy to handle

and skilfully strip off all its bark,

and then with pleasing workmanship

make a useful vessel that serves life’s needs,

12 and burn the castoff pieces of his work

to prepare his food, and eat his fill.

13 But a castoff piece from among them, useful for nothing,

a stick crooked and full of knots,

he takes and carves with care in his leisure,

and shapes it with skill gained in idleness;

he forms it like the image of a man,

14 or makes it like some worthless animal,

giving it a coat of red paint and coloring its surface red

and covering every blemish in it with paint;

15 then he makes for it a niche that befits it,

and sets it in the wall, and fastens it there with iron.

16 So he takes thought for it, that it may not fall,

because he knows that it cannot help itself,

for it is only an image and has need of help.

17 When he prays about possessions and his marriage and children,

he is not ashamed to address a lifeless thing.

18 For health he appeals to a thing that is weak;

for life he prays to a thing that is dead;

for aid he entreats a thing that is utterly inexperienced;

for a prosperous journey, a thing that cannot take a step;

19 for money-making and work and success with his hands

he asks strength of a thing whose hands have no strength.

Chapter 14

1 Again, one preparing to sail and about to voyage over raging waves

calls upon a piece of wood more fragile than the ship which carries him.

2 For it was desire for gain that planned that vessel,

and wisdom was the craftsman who built it;

3 but it is thy providence, O Father, that steers its course,

because thou hast given it a path in the sea,

and a safe way through the waves,

4 showing that thou canst save from every danger,

so that even if a man lacks skill, he may put to sea.

5 It is thy will that works of thy wisdom should not be without effect;

therefore men trust their lives even to the smallest piece of wood,

and passing through the billows on a raft they come safely to land.

6 For even in the beginning, when arrogant giants were perishing,

the hope of the world took refuge on a raft,

and guided by thy hand left to the world the seed of a new generation.

7 For blessed is the wood by which righteousness comes.

8 But the idol made with hands is accursed, and so is he who made it;

because he did the work, and the perishable thing was named a god.

9 For equally hateful to God are the ungodly man and his ungodliness,

10 for what was done will be punished together with him who did it.

11 Therefore there will be a visitation also upon the heathen idols,

because, though part of what God created, they became an abomination,

and became traps for the souls of men

and a snare to the feet of the foolish.

12 For the idea of making idols was the beginning of fornication,

and the invention of them was the corruption of life,

13 for neither have they existed from the beginning

nor will they exist for ever.

14 For through the vanity of men they entered the world,

and therefore their speedy end has been planned.

15 For a father, consumed with grief at an untimely bereavement,

made an image of his child, who had been suddenly taken from him;

and he now honored as a god what was once a dead human being,

and handed on to his dependents secret rites and initiations.

16 Then the ungodly custom, grown strong with time, was kept as a law,

and at the command of monarchs graven images were worshiped.

17 When men could not honor monarchs in their presence, since they lived at a distance,

they imagined their appearance far away,

and made a visible image of the king whom they honored,

so that by their zeal they might flatter the absent one as though present.

18 Then the ambition of the craftsman impelled

even those who did not know the king to intensify their worship.

19 For he, perhaps wishing to please his ruler,

skilfully forced the likeness to take more beautiful form,

20 and the multitude, attracted by the charm of his work,

now regarded as an object of worship the one whom shortly before they had honored as a man.

21 And this became a hidden trap for mankind,

because men, in bondage to misfortune or to royal authority,

bestowed on objects of stone or wood the name that ought not to be shared.

22 Afterward it was not enough for them to err about the knowledge of God,

but they live in great strife due to ignorance,

and they call such great evils peace.

23 For whether they kill children in their initiations, or celebrate secret mysteries,

or hold frenzied revels with strange customs,

24 they no longer keep either their lives or their marriages pure,

but they either treacherously kill one another, or grieve one another by adultery,

25 and all is a raging riot of blood and murder, theft and deceit, corruption, faithlessness, tumult, perjury,

26 confusion over what is good, forgetfulness of favors,

pollution of souls, sex perversion,

disorder in marriage, adultery, and debauchery.

27 For the worship of idols not to be named

is the beginning and cause and end of every evil.

28 For their worshipers either rave in exultation, or prophesy lies,

or live unrighteously, or readily commit perjury;

29 for because they trust in lifeless idols

they swear wicked oaths and expect to suffer no harm.

30 But just penalties will overtake them on two counts:

because they thought wickedly of God in devoting themselves to idols,

and because in deceit they swore unrighteously through contempt for holiness.

31 For it is not the power of the things by which men swear,

but the just penalty for those who sin,

that always pursues the transgression of the unrighteous.

Chapter 15

1 But thou, our God, art kind and true,

patient, and ruling all things in mercy.

2 For even if we sin we are thine, knowing thy power;

but we will not sin, because we know that we are accounted thine.

3 For to know thee is complete righteousness,

and to know thy power is the root of immortality.

4 For neither has the evil intent of human art misled us,

nor the fruitless toil of painters,

a figure stained with varied colors,

5 whose appearance arouses yearning in fools,

so that they desire the lifeless …