19 о прибытке, о ремесле и об успехе рук – совсем не могущее делать руками, о силе просит самое бессильное.

Глава 14

1 Еще: иной, собираясь плыть и переплывать свирепые волны, призывает на помощь дерево, слабейшее носящего его корабля;

2 ибо стремление к приобретениям выдумало оный, а художник искусно устроил,

3 но промысл Твой, Отец, управляет кораблем, ибо Ты дал и путь в море и безопасную стезю в волнах,

4 показывая, что Ты можешь от всего спасать, хотя бы кто отправлялся в море и без искусства.

5 Ты хочешь, чтобы не тщетны были дела Твоей премудрости; поэтому люди вверяют свою жизнь малейшему дереву и спасаются, проходя по волнам на ладье.

6 For even in the beginning, when the proud giants were destroyed, the hope of the world, guided by thy hand, took refuge in the ship, and left the seed of the generation to the world.

7 Blessed is the tree through which righteousness comes!

8 And this man-made thing is cursed both by itself, and by him that made it, because he hath done; And this perishable is called God.

9 For both the wicked and his wickedness are equally hateful to God;

10 And that which is done with him that doeth shall be punished.

11 Wherefore also the idols of the heathen shall be judged, for they have become an abomination in the midst of God's creation, a stumbling block to the souls of men, and a snare to the feet of the foolish.

12 For the invention of idols is the beginning of fornication, and the invention thereof is the corruption of life.

13 They were not in the beginning, and they will never be.

14 They entered the world through human vanity, and therefore the end is destined for them to be near.

15 The father, tormented by bitter grief for his son who died early, made an image of him as already a dead man, then began to worship him as a god, and handed over to those subject the mysteries and sacrifices.

16 Then this impious custom, which had been established by time, was observed as a law, and by the commands of the rulers the image was worshipped as a deity.

17 Whom people could not honor in person, because of the remoteness of their residence, they depicted a distant person: they made a visible image of the revered king, so that by this zeal they might flatter the absent, as if he were present.

18 And the diligence of the artist encouraged to increase reverence even from those who did not know,

19 for he, perhaps desiring to please the ruler, endeavoured by art to make the likeness more beautiful;