15
1 But thou, our God, art gracious and true,
Longsuffering, and in mercy ordering all things.
2 For even if we sin, we are thine, knowing thy dominion;
But we shall not sin, knowing that we have been accounted thine:
3 For to be acquainted with thee is * perfect righteousness,
And to know thy dominion is the root of immortality.
4 For neither were we led astray by any evil device of men’s art,
Nor yet by painters’ fruitless labour,
A form stained with varied colours;
5 The sight whereof leadeth fools into † lust:
Their desire is for the breathless form of a dead image.
6 Lovers of evil things, and worthy of such hopes as these,
Are both they that do, and they that desire, and they that worship.
7 For a potter, kneading soft earth,
Laboriously mouldeth each several vessel for our service:
Nay, out of the same clay doth he fashion
Both the vessels that minister to clean uses, and those of a contrary sort,
All in like manner;
But what shall be the use of each vessel of either sort,
The ‡ craftsman himself is the judge.
8 And also, labouring to an evil end, he mouldeth a vain god out of the same clay,
He who, having but a little before been made of earth,
After a short space goeth his way to the earth out of which he was taken,
When he is required to render back the § soul which was lent him.
9 Howbeit he hath anxious care,
Not because his powers must fail,
Nor because his span of life is short;
But he matcheth himself against goldsmiths and ** silversmiths,
And he imitateth moulders in †† brass,
And esteemeth it glory that he mouldeth counterfeits.
10 His heart is ashes,
And his hope of less value than earth,
And his life of less honour than clay:
11 Because he was ignorant of him that moulded him,
And of him that inspired into him ‡‡ an active §§ soul,
And breathed into him a vital spirit.
12 But *** he accounted our very life to be a ††† plaything,
And our ‡‡‡ lifetime a gainful §§§ fair;
For, saith he, one must get gain whence one can, though it be by evil.
13 For this man beyond all others knoweth that he sinneth,
Out of earthy matter making brittle vessels and graven images.
14 But most foolish * were they all, and † of feebler soul than a babe,
The enemies of thy people, who oppressed them;
15 Because they even accounted all the idols of the nations to be gods;
Which have neither the use of eyes for seeing,
Nor nostrils for drawing breath,
Nor ears to hear,
Nor fingers for handling,
And their feet are helpless for walking.
16 For a man made them,
And one whose own spirit is borrowed moulded them;
For no one hath power, being a man, to mould a god like unto himself,
17 But, being mortal, he maketh a dead thing by the work of lawless hands;
For he is better than the objects of his worship,
‡ Forasmuch as he indeed had life, but they never.
18 Yea, and the creatures that are most hateful do they worship,
§ For, being compared as to want of sense, these are worse than all others;
19 Neither, as seen beside other creatures, are they beautiful, so that one should desire them,
But they have escaped both the praise of God and his blessing.
* 15:3 Gr. entire. † 15:5 Some authorities read reproach. ‡ 15:7 Gr. worker in clay. § 15:8 Or, life ** 15:9 Gr. silver-founders. †† 15:9 Or, copper ‡‡ 15:11 Gr. a soul that moveth to activity. §§ 15:11 Or, life *** 15:12 Some authorities read they accounted. ††† 15:12 Or, sport ‡‡‡ 15:12 Or, way of life §§§ 15:12 Or, keeping of festival * 15:14 Or, are † 15:14 Gr. more wretched than the soul of a babe. ‡ 15:17 Most authorities read Of which, he indeed. § 15:18 The Greek text here is perhaps corrupt.