2 If we sin, we are thine, acknowledging thy authority; but we will not sin, knowing that we are recognized as Thine.

3 To know thee is complete righteousness, and to acknowledge thy authority is the root of immortality.

4 We are not deceived by the cunning invention of man, nor by the fruitless labor of artists, images speckled with divers colors,

5 the sight of which arouses in the insane lust and lust for the soulless appearance of the dead image.

6 And they that do, and lust, and honour, are lovers of evil, worthy of such hopes.

7 The potter crumples the soft earth, carefully molds every vessel for our service; from one and the same clay he makes vessels necessary for both clean and unclean works – all in the same way; but what is the use of each of them, the judge is the same potter.

8 And the vain laborer of the same clay fashioneth a vain god, while he himself was born of the earth lately, and will soon go to the same whence he was taken, and the debt of his soul shall be exacted from him.

9 But his concern is not that he should work hard, nor that his life is short; but he competes with the painters of gold and silver, and imitates the coppersmiths, and counts to himself the glory of doing abominations.

10 His heart is ashes, and his hope is less than the earth, and his life is more contemptible than filth;

11 for he did not know him who created him, and breathed into him an active soul, and breathed into him the spirit of life.

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 most 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.