en_RV1895 - Wis 15 - Ozzuu Bible

¹ [1]But thou, our God, art gracious and true, Longsuffering, and in mercy ordering all things.

² For even if we sin, [2]we are thine, knowing thy dominion; But we shall not sin, knowing that we have been accounted thine:

³ For [3]to be acquainted with thee is [4]perfect righteousness, And to know thy dominion is [5]the root of immortality.

⁴ [6]For neither were we led astray by any evil device of men's art, Nor yet by [7]painters' fruitless labour, A form stained with varied colours;

⁵ [8]The sight whereof leadeth fools into [9]lust: Their desire is for the [10]breathless form of a [11]dead image.

⁶ Lovers of evil things, and worthy of such hopes as these, Are [12]both they that do, and they that desire, and they that worship.

⁷ [13]For a potter, kneading soft earth, Laboriously mouldeth each several vessel for our service: Nay, [14]out of the same clay doth he fashion Both [15]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 [16]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 [17]goeth his way to the earth out of which he was taken, When he is [18]required to render back the [19]soul [20]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 [21] [22]silversmiths, And he imitateth moulders in [23]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 [24]an active [25]soul, And [26]breathed into him a vital spirit.

¹² But [27]he accounted our very life to be a [28]plaything, And our [29]lifetime [30]a gainful [31]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, [32]Out of earthy matter making brittle vessels and graven images.

¹⁴ But most foolish [33] were they all, and [34]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; [35]Which have neither the use of eyes for seeing, Nor nostrils [36]for drawing breath, Nor ears to hear, Nor fingers for handling, And [37]their feet are helpless for walking.

¹⁶ For a man made them, And one [38]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 [39]a dead thing by the work of lawless hands; For he is better than the objects of his worship, [40]Forasmuch as he indeed had life, but [41]they never.

¹⁸ YEA, and [42]the creatures that are most hateful do they worship, [43]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 [44]they have escaped both the praise of God and his blessing.