Wisdom of Solomon · Revised Version with Apocrypha
Wisdom of Solomon 15 Revised Version with Apocrypha
Wisdom of Solomon is not in RV1909.
1 But thou, our God, art gracious and true, Longsuffering, and in mercy ordering all things.
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2 For even if we sin, we are thine, knowing thy dominion; But we shall not sin, knowing that we have been accounted thine:
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3 For to be acquainted with thee is perfect righteousness, And to know thy dominion is the root of immortality.
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4 For neither were we led astray by any evil device of men’s art, Nor yet by painters’ fruitless labour, A form stained with varied colours;
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5 The sight whereof leadeth fools into lust: [Their ] desire is for the breathless form of a dead image.
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6 Lovers of evil things, and worthy of such hopes [as these,] Are both they that do, and they that desire, and they that worship.
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7 For a potter, kneading soft earth, Laboriously mouldeth each several [vessel ] for our service: Nay, out of the same clay doth he fashion Both 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 craftsman [himself ] is the judge.
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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 goeth his way [to the earth ] out of which he was taken, When he is required to render back the soul which was lent him.
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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 silversmiths, And he imitateth moulders in brass, And esteemeth it glory that he mouldeth counterfeits.
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10 His heart is ashes, And his hope of less value than earth, And his life of less honour than clay:
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11 Because he was ignorant of him that moulded him, And of him that inspired into him an active soul, And breathed into him a vital spirit.
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12 But he accounted our [very ] life to be a plaything, And our lifetime a gainful fair; For, saith he, one must get gain whence one can, though it be by evil.
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13 For this man beyond all others knoweth that he sinneth, Out of earthy matter making brittle vessels and graven images.
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14 But most foolish [were ] they all, and of feebler soul than a babe, The enemies of thy people, who oppressed them;
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15 Because they even accounted all the idols of the nations [to be ] gods; Which have neither the use of eyes for seeing, Nor nostrils for drawing breath, Nor ears to hear, Nor fingers for handling, And their feet are helpless for walking.
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16 For a man made them, And one whose own spirit is borrowed moulded them; For no one hath power, [being ] a man, to mould a god like unto himself,
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17 But, being mortal, he maketh a dead thing by the work of lawless hands; For he is better than the objects of his worship, Forasmuch as he indeed had life, but they never.
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18 Yea, and the creatures that are most hateful do they worship, For, being compared as to want of sense, these are worse than all others;
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19 Neither, as seen beside [other ] creatures, are they beautiful, so that one should desire them, But they have escaped both the praise of God and his blessing.
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