1 But You, our God, are kind, true, patient, And govern all things in mercy.
2 For even if we sin, we belong to You and know Your might; But we will not sin, Because we know that we are counted as belonging to You.
3 For to know You is complete righteousness, And to know Your might is the root of immortality.
4 For neither have the evil practices of human art deceived us, Nor a form stained with diverse colors, The barren labor of painting,
5 Whose appearance creates a desire in fools That longs for the lifeless form of a dead image.
6 Lovers of evil things and fit for such objects of hope Are those who either make or desire or worship them.
7 For even when a potter compresses soft earth, He laboriously forms each vessel for our service; But he models from the same clay Both vessels that serve clean uses and likewise those to the contrary. But what will be the function of one or the other is the decision of the craftsman.
8 So, working evil, he forms a worthless god from the same clay, He who a little while before was made from the earth and in a short while returns to the earth from which he was taken, when the soul that was loaned to him Is demanded in return at death.
9 But he is not concerned that he is about to be sick Or that his life will be ending shortly; So he competes with goldsmiths and melters of silver And imitates bronze-workers; And he considers it a glory that he forms false gods.
10 His heart is ashes, and his hope as cheap as dirt; And his life is more dishonored than his clay,
11 Because he disregards the One who formed him, And who inspired him with an operative soul, and breathed into him a life-giving spirit.
12 But he considered our life to be a play thing and life a festival held for profit; For he says, “One must make a living however one can, Even by evil means.”
13 For this man, more than all others, knows that he sins when he fabricates from earthly matter easily broken vessels and carved images.
14 Yet more foolish and infantile are the enemies who oppressed Your people,
15 Because they thought that all the idols of the nations were gods, Though these have neither the use of their eyes for vision, Nor noses for inhaling air, Nor ears to hear with, Nor fingers on their hands for touching; And their feet are useless for walking.
16 For a man made them, And he whose spirit is borrowed formed them; For no man can form a god like himself.
17 A man who works a dead thing with lawless hands is mortal, For he is better than his objects of worship, Because he is alive, but they never are.
18 The enemies of Your people worship the most hateful animals, For they are worse than all others in stupidity.
19 Not even as animals are they so beautiful in appearance that one would desire them, But they escaped both the praise of God and His blessing.