Wisdom of Solomon 13: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

This chapter speaks about people who do not know God. It says some took fire, wind, air, the stars, water, or the lights of the sky to be gods, and argues that the maker of those things is greater than they are; such people are blamed less, since they are searching for God, yet they are not excused. It then describes a woodcutter who shapes good timber into a useful object, burns the scraps to cook his food, carves a leftover crooked piece into the image of a man or an animal, paints it, fastens it to a wall with iron, and prays to it for his goods, his wife and children, health, life, help, safe travel, and success.

Claim by Claim

1. 13:1
   • All men who had no knowledge of God are empty and foolish by nature.
   • They were not able, from the good things that are seen, to know him who is.
   • They did not recognize the craftsman from attending to his works.
2. 13:2
   • They supposed fire to be a god.
   • They supposed wind to be a god.
   • They supposed the swift air to be a god.
   • They supposed the circle of the stars to be a god.
   • They supposed rushing water to be a god.
   • They supposed the lights of heaven to be gods.
   • They held these things to be the gods that govern the world.
3. 13:3
   • Some took these things to be gods because they were delighted by their beauty.
   • Those who did so should learn how much better the Master of these things is.
   • The one who is the source of beauty created these things.
4. 13:4
   • Some were astonished at the power and working of these things.
   • Those who were should understand from these things how much mightier is the one who made them.
5. 13:5
   • From the greatness and beauty of created things their maker is perceived by corresponding measure.
6. 13:6
   • For these people the blame is small.
   • These people perhaps go astray while seeking God.
   • These people desire to find God.
7. 13:7
   • They search diligently while living among his works.
   • They are persuaded by what they see.
   • The things that are seen are beautiful.
8. 13:8
   • Even these people are not to be excused.
9. 13:9
   • They had power to know enough to take the measure of the world.
   • It is asked how they did not sooner find the Master of the world.
10. 13:10
    • Those who call gods the works of men's hands are miserable.
    • Their hope is in dead things.
    • The things they call gods include gold and silver.
    • The gold and silver are the product of craftsmanship.
    • The things they call gods include likenesses of animals.
    • The things they call gods include a stone that is good for nothing.
    • That stone is the work of an ancient hand.
11. 13:11
    • A woodcutter saws down a tree that is easily worked.
    • He skilfully strips off all its bark.
    • He works it into a comely form.
    • He makes from it a useful vessel for the service of life.
12. 13:12
    • He uses the scraps left over from his work to prepare his food.
    • He eats his fill.
13. 13:13
    • He takes a leftover piece from that wood which is good for no use.
    • That piece is a crooked piece of wood full of knots.
    • He carves it carefully in his idle time.
    • He shapes it with skill gained in his leisure.
    • He makes it resemble the image of a man.
14. 13:14
    • Or he makes it like some worthless animal.
    • He smears it with red pigment.
    • He reddens its color with paint.
    • He smears over every blemish in it.
15. 13:15
    • He makes for it a chamber worthy of it.
    • He sets it in a wall.
    • He fastens it securely with iron.
16. 13:16
    • He takes forethought for it so that it will not fall down.
    • He knows that it is unable to help itself.
    • It is an image.
    • It has need of help.
17. 13:17
    • He prays to it about his possessions.
    • He prays to it about his marriage.
    • He prays to it about his children.
    • He is not ashamed to speak to a thing without life.
    • Concerning health he calls upon a thing that is weak.
18. 13:18
    • Concerning life he makes his request to a thing that is dead.
    • Concerning aid he supplicates a thing that is wholly without experience.
    • Concerning a journey he prays to a thing that cannot even use a foot.
19. 13:19
    • Concerning gain and work and success of his hands he asks strength from a thing that is utterly powerless in its hands.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

13:1

"Vain" in 1611 means empty or without substance, not conceited; the Greek word behind it means foolish. "Him that is" renders a Greek phrase for the one who simply exists, the truly existent one, an echo of the name God gives himself in Exodus 3:14, "I AM THAT I AM." "Workmaster" is the older English for a master craftsman or architect.

13:2

The list is the standard set of things ancient peoples treated as divine: the four elements of Greek natural philosophy (fire, air, water, and by implication earth) together with the heavenly bodies. "The circle of the stars" is the circuit the constellations appear to make around the sky, the band tracked by ancient astronomy and astrology.

13:3

"Their Lord" means the master of those bright things, the God who made the stars, the fire and the sea. It does not mean the people's own lord.

13:4

"Virtue" in 1611 English means power or effective force, the capacity of a thing to do something, not moral goodness.

13:5

"Proportionably" is an old form of "in proportion": the greater the beauty of the thing made, the greater the maker must be. "Creatures" here means created things of every kind, not animals.

13:6

"Peradventure" is 1611 English for perhaps or possibly.

13:9

"Aim at" here means to estimate, reckon or take the measure of. The Greek verb is the one used for forming a conjecture, and the object is the whole ordered universe, so the charge is that people clever enough to work out the cosmos should have worked out its owner.

13:10

"To shew art in" means made so as to display the craftsman's skill. "Resemblances of beasts" points at animal-shaped gods, familiar to the author's readers from Egyptian religion. "The work of an ancient hand" is genuinely open: it can mean a stone carved by someone long dead and prized for its age, or simply a crude old piece of work. The Greek allows both.

13:11

"Meet for the purpose" means suited to the job; the Greek word can also mean easily moved or easy to handle. "Vessel" means any container or utensil, not specifically a ship. The whole picture that follows, a workman who cooks his dinner with one part of the log and prays to another, belongs to a Jewish tradition of mocking idol makers found also in Isaiah 44 and Jeremiah 10.

13:12

"Refuse" here is the noun, stressed on the first syllable: the scraps and offcuts. "Dress his meat" means prepare his food; in 1611 "meat" means food of any kind, not flesh in particular.

13:13

"When he had nothing else to do" renders a pointed Greek phrase, something like "the diligence of his idleness": the care he gives the idol is the care of a man with time on his hands, spent on what was left after the real work was done.

13:14

"Vile" in 1611 means worthless or of no account rather than disgusting. Vermilion is a brilliant red pigment made from cinnabar, mercury sulfide; red paint was a common finish on cult statues across the ancient world, and here it doubles as a way of hiding the flaws in bad wood.

13:15

"Convenient" in 1611 means fitting or suitable, not handy. "Room" means space: a niche cut into a wall, which is where household gods were commonly kept, fastened so they could not topple out.

13:16

An "image" here means a statue shaped like a person or an animal. It cannot move or think.

13:17

"Goods" means property and possessions. "For his wife" translates a Greek word meaning marriage, so the prayer is about his marriage itself, a good match or children from it, as much as about the woman.

13:18

"No experience at all" means the thing has never done anything in its life. It has had no practice at helping anyone.

13:19

"Gaining and getting" is business profit and acquisition. The closing line turns on a pun the English keeps: he asks for the power to act from a thing whose own hands are powerless.