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14:1  Again, one preparing to sail and about to voyage over raging waves calls upon a piece of wood more fragile than the ship that carries him.
14:2  For it was desire for gain that planned that vessel, and wisdom was the artisan who built it;
14:3  but it is your providence, O Father, that steers its course, because you have given it a path in the sea, and a safe way through the waves,
14:4  showing that you can save from every danger, so that even a person who lacks skill may put to sea.
14:5  It is your will that works of your wisdom should not be without effect; therefore people trust their lives even to the smallest piece of wood, and passing through the billows on a raft they come safely to land.
14:6  For even in the beginning, when arrogant giants were perishing, the hope of the world took refuge on a raft, and guided by your hand left to the world the seed of a new generation.
14:7  For blessed is the wood by which righteousness comes.
14:8  But the idol made with hands is accursed, and so is the one who made it— he for having made it, and the perishable thing because it was named a god.
14:9  For equally hateful to God are the ungodly and their ungodliness;
14:10  for what was done will be punished together with the one who did it.
14:11  Therefore there will be a visitation also upon the heathen idols, because, though part of what God created, they became an abomination, snares for human souls and a trap for the feet of the foolish.
14:12  For the idea of making idols was the beginning of fornication, and the invention of them was the corruption of life;
14:13  for they did not exist from the beginning, nor will they last forever.
14:14  For through human vanity they entered the world, and therefore their speedy end has been planned.
14:15  For a father, consumed with grief at an untimely bereavement, made an image of his child, who had been suddenly taken from him; he now honored as a god what was once a dead human being, and handed on to his dependents secret rites and initiations.
14:16  Then the ungodly custom, grown strong with time, was kept as a law, and at the command of monarchs carved images were worshiped.
14:17  When people could not honor monarchs in their presence, since they lived at a distance, they imagined their appearance far away, and made a visible image of the king whom they honored, so that by their zeal they might flatter the absent one as though present.
14:18  Then the ambition of the artisan impelled even those who did not know the king to intensify their worship.
14:19  For he, perhaps wishing to please his ruler, skillfully forced the likeness to take more beautiful form,
14:20  and the multitude, attracted by the charm of his work, now regarded as an object of worship the one whom shortly before they had honored as a human being.
14:21  And this became a hidden trap for humankind, because people, in bondage to misfortune or to royal authority, bestowed on objects of stone or wood the name that ought not to be shared.
14:22  Then it was not enough for them to err about the knowledge of God, but though living in great strife due to ignorance, they call such great evils peace.
14:23  For whether they kill children in their initiations, or celebrate secret mysteries, or hold frenzied revels with strange customs,
14:24  they no longer keep either their lives or their marriages pure, but they either treacherously kill one another, or grieve one another by adultery,
14:25  and all is a raging riot of blood and murder, theft and deceit, corruption, faithlessness, tumult, perjury,
14:26  confusion over what is good, forgetfulness of favors, defiling of souls, sexual perversion, disorder in marriages, adultery, and debauchery.
14:27  For the worship of idols not to be named is the beginning and cause and end of every evil.
14:28  For their worshipers either rave in exultation, or prophesy lies, or live unrighteously, or readily commit perjury;
14:29  for because they trust in lifeless idols they swear wicked oaths and expect to suffer no harm.
14:30  But just penalties will overtake them on two counts: because they thought wrongly about God in devoting themselves to idols, and because in deceit they swore unrighteously through contempt for holiness.
14:31  For it is not the power of the things by which people swear, but the just penalty for those who sin, that always pursues the transgression of the unrighteous.