| 1 Imagine someone who is about to set sail and cross the raging sea. He calls upon a piece of wood far more fragile than the boat that carries him. | |
| 2 In fact, this boat has been built with gain in mind and proceeds from the wisdom of the shipwright. | |
| 3 But it is your providence, Father, that guides it, for you are the one who prepares a path through the sea and a safe way over the waves. | |
| 4 By this we understand that you are able to save us from any danger, and even the unskilled are able to sail. | |
| 5 People are the work of your wisdom and you do not want them to remain idle. So they trust their lives to a small plank of wood and cross the sea safe and sound on a raft. | |
| 6 At the beginning of time when proud giants perished, the hope of the world took refuge on a raft and, led by your hand, left to the world the seed of a new race. | |
| 7 Blessed be the wood by which salvation was carried out! | |
| 8 But cursed be the idol and its maker, the idol made by human hands, this corruptible thing that is called a god, and the craftsman for having fashioned it. | |
| 9 They are hateful to God, both the godless and the fruit of his godlessness; | |
| 10 the maker will be punished together with his work. | |
| 11 Therefore the idols of the nations will also be judged. They have come to be the most abominable among the creatures of God. They are a stumbling block to the spirit of man, and the feet of the foolish are caught in the snare. | |
| 12 The invention of idols was the origin of licentiousness; when they were invented, life became corrupt. | |
| 13 For in the beginning they did not exist and they will not exist forever. | |
| 14 Human vanity introduced them into the world, and God has set a term for them. | |
| 15 Suppose a father, overwhelmed by grief for a child so swiftly taken from him, has an image made of him. From that time on a dead creature will be honored as a god, because the father handed on to his dependents secret rites and celebrations. | |
| 16 Time will consolidate this unholy practice and eventually it will be observed by law. It has also happened that sculptured images were venerated by order of sovereigns. | |
| 17 Those who lived far away and were unable to honor them personally had copies made, that they might honor them as if present by means of their image. | |
| 18 The ambition of the artist helped the veneration grow among those who did not even know the sovereign. | |
| 19 As he wished to please his master, he made the portrait more attractive than reality, | |
| 20 and the people, seduced by the perfection of art work, began to worship someone previously honored as a man. | |
| 21 In this way the image became a pitfall for the living, for people bent down, either by misfortune or tyranny, gave to stones and wood the incommunicable Name. | |
| 22 But it was not enough for them to err in their knowledge of God; in the great trouble to which ignorance condemned them, they have called such an evil situation peace. | |
| 23 With the sacrificial murder of children in their initiations, with secret mysteries and wild ceremonial orgies, | |
| 24 they no longer keep their lives and marriages pure; they treacherously murder one another or wound others through adultery. | |
| 25 Everywhere it is a welter of blood, murder, fraud and theft, corruption, treachery, riots, perjury; | |
| 26 on all sides harassment of good people, forgetfulness of favors, the pollution of souls and sins against nature, widespread disorder in marriage, adultery, debauchery. | |
| 27 Indeed the worship of gods which do not even deserve a name, is the beginning, cause and effect of every evil. | |
| 28 Others delight in raving or uttering false prophecies; they live wickedly and casually perjure themselves. | |
| 29 As they deal with lifeless images, they do not fear any punishment for their false oaths, | |
| 30 but a double punishment awaits them: as idolators for their base concept of God, as frauds for taking false oaths in defiance of all that is holy. | |
| 31 Though the idols by which they swore are powerless, justice that pursues sinners always overtakes the sin of the wicked. | |
