Wisdom 15
New American Bible Revised Edition

1* But you, our God, are good and true,

slow to anger, and governing all with mercy.a

2For even if we sin, we are yours, and know your might;

but we will not sin, knowing that we belong to you.b

3For to know you well is complete righteousness,

and to know your might is the root of immortality.c

4For the evil creation of human fancy did not deceive us,

nor the fruitless labor of painters,d

A form smeared with varied colors,

5the sight of which arouses yearning in a fool,

till he longs for the inanimate form of a dead image.

6Lovers of evil things, and worthy of such hopes

are they who make them and long for them and worship them.e

The Potter’s Clay Idols

7For the potter, laboriously working the soft earth,

molds for our service each single article:

He fashions out of the same clay

both the vessels that serve for clean purposes

and their opposites, all alike;

As to what shall be the use of each vessel of either class

the worker in clay is the judge.f

8* With misspent toil he molds a meaningless god from the selfsame clay,

though he himself shortly before was made from the earth,

And is soon to go whence he was taken,

when the life that was lent him is demanded back.g

9But his concern is not that he is to die

nor that his span of life is brief;

Rather, he vies with goldsmiths and silversmiths

and emulates molders of bronze,

and takes pride in fashioning counterfeits.h

10Ashes his heart is!* more worthless than earth is his hope,i

more ignoble than clay his life;

11Because he knew not the one who fashioned him,

and breathed into him a quickening soul,

and infused a vital spirit.j

12Instead, he esteemed our life a mere game,

and our span of life a holiday for gain;

“For one must,” says he, “make a profit in every way, be it even from evil.”k

13For more than anyone else he knows that he is sinning,

when out of earthen stuff he creates fragile vessels and idols alike.

14But most stupid of all and worse than senseless in mind,

are the enemies of your people who enslaved them.l

15For they esteemed all the idols of the nations as gods,

which cannot use their eyes to see,

nor nostrils to breathe the air,

Nor ears to hear,

nor fingers on their hands for feeling;

even their feet are useless to walk with.m

16For it was a mere human being who made them;n

one living on borrowed breath who fashioned them.

For no one is able to fashion a god like himself;

17he is mortal, and what he makes with lawless hands is dead.

For he is better than the things he worships;

he at least lives, but never his idols.

Second Example Resumed

18* Besides, they worship the most loathsome beasts—o

as regards stupidity, these are worse than the rest,*

19For beasts are neither good-looking nor desirable;

they have escaped both the approval of God and his blessing.p


Book Introduction

Footnotes

Scripture texts, prefaces, introductions, footnotes and cross references used in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.





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