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14:1  Again, someone preparing to embark on a voyage through turbulent waves invokes a piece of wood more frail than the ship that carries him.
14:2  It was desire for profit that devised that vessel, and Wisdom was the shipwright that built it.
14:3  However, O Father, your providence guides it, since you have provided it with a pathway through the sea and with a safe passage through the waves,
14:4  indicating that you can save from every danger, so that even an inexperienced person can put out to sea.
14:5  It is your will that the works of your Wisdom should not be sterile; thus men entrust their lives even to the most fragile wood, and they safely reach land even after sailing through the waves on a raft.
14:6  For in the beginning, when arrogant giants were being destroyed, the hope of the world took refuge on a raft and, guided by your hand, bequeathed to the world the seed of a new generation.
14:7  For blessed is the wood through which a righteous work is accomplished,
14:8  but the idol made with hands is accursed, as is its maker— he for having made it, and it because, even though perishable, it was called a god.
14:9  Equally hateful to God are the godless man and his ungodliness;
14:10  the work and the artificer will both be punished.
14:11  Therefore, a visitation will overtake even the idols of the nations because among the creatures of God they have become an abomination, a scandal for human souls, and a pitfall for the feet of the foolish.
14:12  The invention of idols marked the origin of immorality; their discovery corrupted human life.
14:13  They did not exist at the beginning, and they will not last forever.
14:14  They entered the world as a result of human vanity, and therefore a speedy demise has been planned for them.
14:15  A father overcome with grief at an untimely death had an image made of the child so quickly taken from him. And he honored as a god what was formerly a corpse and handed on to his household the observance of sacrifices and ceremonies.
14:16  With the passing of time this impious custom became established and was observed as a law, and at the command of rulers graven images were worshiped.
14:17  When the subjects of a monarch lived at such a distance that they could not honor him in person, they would have a likeness made of their far-off ruler, thereby possessing a visible image of the king they desired to honor, zealously in this way flattering the absent ruler as though he were present.
14:18  Even those who did not know the king were aroused to promote his worship by the ambition of the artisan
14:19  who, perhaps in his eagerness to please his ruler, used all his skill to depict him in the most favorable way;
14:20  and the people, attracted by the beauty of his artistry, began to worship as a god someone whom they had previously honored as a man.
14:21  Thus, this became a snare for humankind, since people, whether victimized by misfortune or by tyranny, assigned to objects of stone and wood the name that belongs to no other.
14:22  Then it was not sufficient for them to have mistaken notions in their knowledge of God; for, even though they live in the midst of a great war of ignorance, they term such horrible evils peace.
14:23  They engage in the ritual murders of children and in occult rites, and they hold frenzied orgies replete with unnatural ceremonies.
14:24  They no longer cherish the purity of their lives and marriages, either treacherously murdering their neighbor or aggrieving him by committing adultery with his spouse.
14:25  Chaos reigns supreme—blood and murder, theft and fraud, corruption, treachery, riot, perjury,
14:26  destruction of the tranquillity of decent men, ingratitude, defilement of souls, sexual perversion, disorder in marriages, adultery, and debauchery.
14:27  For the worship of nameless idols is the beginning, the source, and the end of every evil.
14:28  Idolaters either become frenzied in their exultation or prophesy what is untrue, or live wicked lives or do not hesitate to commit perjury.
14:29  Since they place their trust in lifeless idols, they have no fear of punishment in swearing false oaths.
14:30  But justice will overtake them on two counts: because in their devotion to idols they ignored God, and because in their contempt for holiness they deliberately committed perjury.
14:31  For it is not the power of the things by which men swear but the just punishment reserved for those who sin that always overtakes the transgression of the wicked.