Wisdom of Solomon 15:1–5

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

patient, and ruling all thingsu 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 desirev the lifeless form of a dead image.