1 Again, someone getting ready for a voyage and about to sail through wild waves Cries out loud to a piece of wood More fragile than the ship that carries him.
2 For it was desire for gain that contrived that boat, And wisdom was the craftsman who built it;
3 But Your providence, O Father, governs its course, Because You have given it a path in the sea and a safe track in the waves,
4 Showing that You can save from every danger, And that even without skill one may embark upon the sea.
5 For You do not will that the works of Your wisdom be useless; Therefore, men trust their lives even to the smallest piece of wood, And passing through the waves on a ship They are brought safely through.
6 For even in the beginning, when arrogant giants perished, The hope of the world took refuge in a boat, And piloted by Your hand it left to the world the seed of a family.
7 For the wood was blessed through which righteousness comes.
8 But what was made by human hands itself is accursed, And so is he who made it He because he made it, And the perishable thing because it was called a god.
9 For equally hateful to God are the ungodly man and his ungodliness.
10 For what was done will be punished along with him who did it.
11 Therefore there shall also be a visitation upon the idols of the nations, Because, though the wood was part of God's creation, It was made into an abomination And became a stumbling-block for the souls of men And a trap for the feet of fools.
12 For the invention of idols was the beginning of fornication, And the conception of them the corruption of life,
13 For neither were they from the beginning Nor shall they be forever.
14 For by the vainglory of mankind they entered the world, And therefore their speedy end has been planned.
15 For a father consumed with untimely grief When his child was soon taken from him Made an image of the once-dead human being and honored him now as a god, And handed down to those under him secret mysteries and initiations.
16 Then the ungodly custom, strengthened by time, was kept as a law, and at the command of tyrants carved images were worshiped.
17 When men could not honor a tyrant before his face Because he lived far away, They imagined his face from a distance And made a visible image of the honored king, That by their zeal they might flatter the one absent as though present.
18 Then the ambition of the craftsman encouraged Even those who did not know the king to increase their worship.
19 For wishing perhaps to please the one who ruled over him, He skillfully forced the likeness into a more beautiful form,
20 And the multitude, attracted by the popularity of his work, Now considered him as an object of worship Whom a short time before they honored as a man.
21 But this became a trap for their life, Because men, in bondage either to calamity or to kingly power, Conferred on stones and wood a name not shared with another.
22 Furthermore, it was not enough for them to be deceived about the knowledge of God, But they live in a great conflict of ignorance, And they call such evils peace.
23 For they either hold child-murdering rites of initiation, Or celebrate secret my steries, Or engage in the frantic revelry of special customs.
24 Moreover, they keep neither life nor marriages pure, but one either kills another in ambush, Or one causes another grief when he corrupts his marriage.
25 Every thing is mixed together: Blood and murder, theft and treachery, Depravity, unfaithfulness, tumult, perjury,
26 Confusion over what is good, ingratitude, corruption of family, Breakup of marriages, disorder, adultery, and debauchery.
27 For the worship of idols not to be named is the beginning, cause, and end of every evil.
28 For either they are driven to a frenzy in their celebrations, Or prophesy lies, Or live unrighteously, or readily swear falsely;
29 For since they trust in lifeless idols, they swear with wrong motives and expect to suffer no harm.
30 But justice will catch up with them on two counts: Because they thought wrongly about God in their devotion to idols, And by treating holiness with contempt they swore unjustly in deceit.
31 For it is not the power of making oaths, but the punishment of those who sin that always prosecutes the transgression of the unrighteous.