12 They consider our life to be a pastime, and our life a profitable trade, for they say that we must profit from somewhere, even from evil.

13 Yet such a one knows more than anyone else that he sins in making mortal vessels and images out of earthy matter.

14 But the most foolish of all, and the poorest of the minds of the babes, are the enemies of thy people, who oppress them,

15 because they worship all the idols of the heathen as gods, which have neither eyes to see, nor nostrils to attract air, nor ears to hear, nor fingers of the hands to touch, and whose feet are not fit to walk.

16 Though man made them, and the borrowing spirit formed them, yet no man can form a god like himself.

17 Being mortal, he makes dead things with ungodly hands, so he is more excellent than his gods, for he lived, and they never.

18 Moreover, they revere the most abominable animals, which in their senselessness are comparatively worse than all.

19 They are even ugly in appearance, like other animals, so that they can draw to themselves, but they lack both God's approval and His blessing.

Chapter 16

1 Wherefore they were worthily punished by such beasts, and were torn to pieces by a multitude of monsters.

2 Instead of this punishment thou hast done good to thy people: thou hast prepared for their nourishment for their nourishment an extraordinary food, quails,

3 that those, tormented by hunger, because of the abominable appearance of the reptiles sent, should refuse even the necessary urge for food, and these, having suffered a short shortage, should taste of extraordinary food.

4 For those oppressors were to suffer an inevitable defect, and by this only it was necessary to show how their enemies were tormented.

5 And then, when the terrible fury of the beasts came upon them, and they were destroyed by the bites of the cunning serpents, thy wrath did not continue to the end.