Wisdom of Solomon 14

Again, a man getting ready to sail, about to cross raging waves, calls out to a piece of wood more fragile than the ship that carries him.

1Again, one preparing himself to sail, and about to pass through the raging waves, calleth upon a piece of wood more rotten than the vessel that carrieth him.

NoteAncient ships commonly carried a carved wooden image of a god, often set at the prow or the stern, and travelers prayed to it before a voyage. The writer's joke is that the passenger prays to a smaller and flimsier piece of timber than the hull he is standing on.

2It was the hunger for profit that planned that ship, and wisdom was the skilled worker who built it.

2For verily desire of gain devised that, and the workman built it by his skill.

Note"Wisdom" here is the ordinary Greek word for practical skill or craft, the same word this book uses elsewhere for God's Wisdom. The sentence can be heard either way: the shipwright's know-how built it, or God's Wisdom did, and the writer is playing on both.

3But it is your foresight and care, Father, that steers it, for you made a way through the sea and a safe path among the waves.

3But thy providence, O Father, governeth it: for thou hast made a way in the sea, and a safe path in the waves;

Note"Providence" means foresight: care that looks ahead and provides in advance. It is not a visit or an intervention after the fact.

4This shows that you can save people from every danger, yes, even if a man put out to sea with no skill at all.

4Shewing that thou canst save from all danger: yea, though a man went to sea without art.

5Still, you did not want the works of your wisdom to sit idle. So people trust their lives even to a small piece of wood, and they cross the rough sea on a raft and are brought through safely.

5Nevertheless thou wouldest not that the works of thy wisdom should be idle, and therefore do men commit their lives to a small piece of wood, and passing the rough sea in a weak vessel are saved.

NoteBehind "a small piece of wood" and "a weak vessel" is the Greek word for a raft, planks lashed together, the cheapest and least seaworthy thing that floats.

6For in the old times too, when the proud giants were perishing, the hope of the world escaped on a raft, steered by your hand, and left behind for every age to come a seed from which later generations grew.

6For in the old time also, when the proud giants perished, the hope of the world governed by thy hand escaped in a weak vessel, and left to all ages a seed of generation.

NoteThe "proud giants" are the Nephilim of Genesis 6, the generation wiped out by the flood; "the hope of the world" is Noah, and the "weak vessel" is the ark, which the writer pointedly calls a raft to keep the theme of wood running. The "seed of generation" is the surviving family from which all later humanity descended.

7For blessed is the wood through which righteousness comes.

7For blessed is the wood whereby righteousness cometh.

NoteThe blessed wood is the timber of the ark, set deliberately against the timber of the idol in the next verse: the same material, opposite uses.

8But the thing made by human hands is cursed, both it and the man who made it: he, because he made it, and it, because, being a thing that rots away, it was called a god.

8But that which is made with hands is cursed, as well it, as he that made it: he, because he made it; and it, because, being corruptible, it was called god.

9For God hates the ungodly man and his ungodliness alike.

9For the ungodly and his ungodliness are both alike hateful unto God.

10For what was done will be punished together with the one who did it.

10For that which is made shall be punished together with him that made it.

11So a day of reckoning will come even upon the idols of the nations, because, though they were made from things God created, they became a detestable thing, a stumbling block to people's souls, and a trap for the feet of the foolish.

11Therefore even upon the idols of the Gentiles shall there be a visitation: because in the creature of God they are become an abomination, and stumblingblocks to the souls of men, and a snare to the feet of the unwise.

NoteIn older English a "visitation" is an official coming to inspect and to pass sentence, not a friendly call. The point is that God will come to deal with the idols themselves, not only with the people who made them.

12For thinking up idols was the beginning of sexual immorality, and inventing them was the ruin of life.

12For the devising of idols was the beginning of spiritual fornication, and the invention of them the corruption of life.

NoteThe Greek word is the ordinary one for sexual immorality, but Israel's prophets had long spoken of worshiping other gods as adultery against God, so the word carries both senses at once here. The KJV translators added "spiritual" to mark the figurative sense.

13They did not exist from the beginning, and they will not exist forever.

13For neither were they from the beginning, neither shall they be for ever.

14They came into the world through the empty pride of people, and for that reason a quick end has been planned for them.

14For by the vain glory of men they entered into the world, and therefore shall they come shortly to an end.

15A father worn down by grief that came too soon made an image of his child, who had been taken from him quickly. He now honored as a god the one who was then a dead human being, and he handed down to those under him secret rites and sacrifices.

15For a father afflicted with untimely mourning, when he hath made an image of his child soon taken away, now honoured him as a god, which was then a dead man, and delivered to those that were under him ceremonies and sacrifices.

NoteThis repeats a theory current in the Greek world of the writer's day: that the gods began as human beings who were honored after death until the honor hardened into worship. "Mysteries" and "ceremonies" are secret initiation rites open only to those admitted; "those that were under him" are the grieving father's household, dependents and subjects.

16Then, as time passed, this ungodly custom grew strong and was kept as a law, and carved images were worshiped because rulers commanded it.

16Thus in process of time an ungodly custom grown strong was kept as a law, and graven images were worshipped by the commandments of kings.

NoteIn the Hellenistic kingdoms, and later under Rome, honoring the ruler's image could be a legal obligation enforced by decree, so worship of a statue was not merely private devotion but something the state required.

17When people could not honor them in person, because they lived far away, they copied the face from a distance and made a visible image of the king they honored, so that by this eagerness they could flatter the absent man as if he were present.

17Whom men could not honour in presence, because they dwelt far off, they took the counterfeit of his visage from far, and made an express image of a king whom they honoured, to the end that by this their forwardness they might flatter him that was absent, as if he were present.

NotePortraits and statues of a ruler were sent out to provinces he would never visit, and honoring the image counted as honoring the man. "Forwardness" in the KJV means eagerness or zeal, not rudeness.

18The unusual drive of the craftsman also helped push those who did not know the man on to still more worship.

18Also the singular diligence of the artificer did help to set forward the ignorant to more superstition.

19For he, perhaps wanting to please the one in power, used all his skill to force the likeness toward greater beauty.

19For he, peradventure willing to please one in authority, forced all his skill to make the resemblance of the best fashion.

20So the crowd, drawn in by the beauty of the work, now treated as something to be worshiped the man who a little before had only been honored.

20And so the multitude, allured by the grace of the work, took him now for a god, which a little before was but honoured.

21And this became a trap for the world, because people, held in the grip of either disaster or tyranny, gave to stones and blocks of wood the name that may not be shared.

21And this was an occasion to deceive the world: for men, serving either calamity or tyranny, did ascribe unto stones and stocks the incommunicable name.

Note"The incommunicable name" is the personal name of God, which belongs to him alone and cannot be transferred to anything else; by this period Jews avoided pronouncing it at all. "Stocks" means blocks of wood or tree trunks.

22And it was not enough for them to be wrong about the knowledge of God. While they live in a great war of ignorance, they call such great evils peace.

22Moreover this was not enough for them, that they erred in the knowledge of God; but whereas they lived in the great war of ignorance, those so great plagues called they peace.

NoteThe KJV word order inverts the sense: read it as "they called those so great plagues peace." The charge is that people gave the name peace to a condition the writer regards as open warfare.

23For they slaughter their children in sacrifices, or carry out secret rites, or hold wild celebrations with foreign customs.

23For whilst they slew their children in sacrifices, or used secret ceremonies, or made revellings of strange rites;

NoteThree practices are named that Jewish writers regarded as marks of foreign religion: sacrificing children, which the law of Israel forbids absolutely; initiation into secret cults whose rites members swore not to reveal; and ecstatic night festivals of the kind associated with Dionysus, in which frenzy was part of the worship.

24They no longer keep either their lives or their marriages undefiled. Instead, one man kills another by treachery, or brings him pain by adultery.

24They kept neither lives nor marriages any longer undefiled: but either one slew another traiterously, or grieved him by adultery.

25So among everyone without exception there ruled bloodshed and murder, theft and deceit, corruption, unfaithfulness, riots, lying under oath,

25So that there reigned in all men without exception blood, manslaughter, theft, and dissimulation, corruption, unfaithfulness, tumults, perjury,

NoteCatalogues of vices strung together like this were a standard set piece in Greek and Jewish moral writing of the period, meant to overwhelm by accumulation rather than to be read as a precise list. KJV "dissimulation" means pretending to be what one is not, and "tumults" means riots or civil disorder.

26trouble about what is good, forgetting kindnesses received, ingratitude for favors, the staining of souls, confusion of the sexes, disorder in marriage, adultery, and shameless indecency.

26Disquieting of good men, forgetfulness of good turns, defiling of souls, changing of kind, disorder in marriages, adultery, and shameless uncleanness.

NoteKJV "changing of kind" translates a Greek phrase whose sense is disputed. It may mean confusion of parentage, children whose descent is no longer certain, or a blurring of the distinction between the sexes; the wording does not settle which.

27For the worship of idols, which should not even be named, is the beginning, the cause, and the end of every evil.

27For the worshipping of idols not to be named is the beginning, the cause, and the end, of all evil.

NoteThere was a long-standing refusal in Jewish practice to speak the names of other gods aloud, going back to commands like Exodus 23:13. "Not to be named" reflects that habit rather than describing the idols as unnameable.

28Their worshipers either go mad while they celebrate, or prophesy lies, or live unjustly, or swear false oaths without a second thought.

28For either they are mad when they be merry, or prophesy lies, or live unjustly, or else lightly forswear themselves.

Note"Mad when they be merry" refers to religious festivals in which ecstatic frenzy was part of the rite, not to ordinary drunkenness. "Prophesy lies" refers to oracles delivered at shrines, and "lightly forswear themselves" means swearing false oaths casually.

29Since their trust is in idols, which have no life, they swear falsely and still expect no harm to come to them.

29For insomuch as their trust is in idols, which have no life; though they swear falsely, yet they look not to be hurt.

NoteAn oath in the ancient world called on a god to punish the swearer if he lied, so the oath's whole force rested on the god being able to act. The writer's point is that people who swear by lifeless statues expect nothing to happen to them when they lie.

30But on both counts they will be justly punished: because they thought wrongly about God by paying attention to idols, and because they swore unjustly and deceitfully, treating holiness with contempt.

30Howbeit for both causes shall they be justly punished: both because they thought not well of God, giving heed unto idols, and also unjustly swore in deceit, despising holiness.

31For it is not the power of the things people swear by, but the just punishment that sinners deserve, which always falls on the wrongdoing of the ungodly.

31For it is not the power of them by whom they swear: but it is the just vengeance of sinners, that punisheth always the offence of the ungodly.

Note"The just vengeance of sinners" means the punishment that sinners have coming, not punishment carried out by sinners. The contrast is between the powerlessness of the thing sworn by and the justice that acts anyway.