Wisdom of Solomon 15: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

The chapter opens by addressing God as gracious, true, patient, and ordering all things in mercy, and says that to know him is perfect righteousness and to know his power is the root of immortality. It then turns to those who make idols: the potter who shapes vessels for clean and unclean uses out of the same clay, and who out of the same clay also makes a worthless god, though he himself was made of earth and returns to it. It ends with the enemies of God's people, who counted the idols of the nations as gods that cannot see, breathe, hear, handle, or walk, and who worshiped the most hateful animals.

Claim by Claim

1. 15:1
   • God is gracious and kind.
   • God is true.
   • God is longsuffering.
   • God orders all things in mercy.
   • The address is spoken to God.
2. 15:2
   • If we sin, we are God's.
   • We know God's power.
   • We will not sin.
   • We know that we have been counted as God's.
3. 15:3
   • To know God is perfect righteousness.
   • To know God's power is the root of immortality.
4. 15:4
   • The evil invention of men did not deceive us.
   • A form stained with various colours did not deceive us.
   • Such a painted form is the painter's fruitless labour.
5. 15:5
   • The sight of such an image entices fools into lust.
   • They desire the form of a dead image.
   • The dead image has no breath.
6. 15:6
   • Those who make such images are lovers of evil things.
   • Those who desire such images are lovers of evil things.
   • Those who worship such images are lovers of evil things.
   • Such people deserve to have such things as their hope.
7. 15:7
   • The potter kneads soft earth.
   • The potter fashions each vessel with much labour for our service.
   • Out of the same clay the potter makes vessels that serve clean uses.
   • Out of the same clay the potter makes vessels that serve the opposite uses.
   • The potter himself decides what each vessel of either sort will be used for.
8. 15:8
   • Labouring to an evil end, he makes a worthless god out of the same clay.
   • He himself was made of earth a little while before.
   • After a short time he returns to the earth.
   • His soul was lent to him.
   • His soul will be demanded back from him.
9. 15:9
   • His anxiety is not that he will have much labour.
   • His anxiety is not that his life is short.
   • He competes with goldsmiths and silversmiths.
   • He imitates the workers in brass.
   • He counts it his glory to make counterfeit things.
10. 15:10
    • His heart is ashes.
    • His hope is more worthless than earth.
    • His life is of less value than clay.
11. 15:11
    • He did not know the one who made him.
    • He did not know the one who breathed an active soul into him.
    • He did not know the one who breathed a living spirit into him.
12. 15:12
    • They counted our life a game.
    • They counted our lifetime a market held for profit.
    • They say one must get gain in every way.
    • They say one must get gain even by evil means.
13. 15:13
    • This man makes brittle vessels out of earthly matter.
    • This man makes graven images out of earthly matter.
    • This man knows that he sins more than all others.
14. 15:14
    • The enemies of God's people are most foolish.
    • The enemies of God's people are more miserable than an infant.
    • The enemies of God's people held them in subjection.
15. 15:15
    • They counted all the idols of the nations to be gods.
    • The idols have no use of eyes for seeing.
    • The idols have no nostrils for drawing breath.
    • The idols have no ears for hearing.
    • The idols have no fingers for handling.
    • The idols' feet are useless for walking.
16. 15:16
    • A man made the idols.
    • The one who fashioned them had his own spirit only on loan.
    • No man has power to make a god like himself.
17. 15:17
    • He is mortal.
    • He makes a dead thing with lawless hands.
    • He himself is better than the things he worships.
    • He once had life.
    • The things he worships never had life.
18. 15:18
    • They worship animals that are most hateful.
    • Compared with other animals, these are worse than all others.
19. 15:19
    • The animals they worship are not beautiful enough to be desired as other animals are.
    • These animals escaped the praise of God.
    • These animals escaped the blessing of God.

Words Worth Explaining

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

15:1

Chapters 13 to 15 of this book are a sustained attack on the worship of images, and the argument has been running for two chapters without a break. Here the writer turns abruptly from describing idol makers to addressing God directly, in the manner of a prayer, before returning to the attack in verse 4.

15:2

"Longsuffering" is a King James compound that renders a Greek word for slow to anger, patient under provocation. It does not mean suffering for a long time.

15:3

A root is where a plant starts and gets its life. Saying knowing God is "the root" means it is the place that kind of life grows from.

15:4

In 1611 "mischievous" meant actively harmful or malicious, with none of the playful sense it now carries, and "invention" meant a contrivance or scheme rather than a new idea. "Divers colours" is the older spelling of diverse, meaning various or assorted, and the phrase describes a painted statue.

15:5

The statue has no breath because it is not alive. It cannot move or hear or help anyone.

15:6

An idol is a statue or carved image that people treat as a god. They bow to it, pray to it, and bring it gifts.

15:7

To "temper" clay is to work water into it and knead it to the right consistency for throwing, a stage every potter goes through before shaping a pot.

15:8

The contrast between pots for "clean uses" and pots for "the contrary" is between vessels for food, drink and washing and vessels for waste and refuse, made from one identical batch of clay. "Lewdly" in 1611 meant wickedly or basely in general, without the sexual sense the word now carries. The image at the end of the verse is of a loan being called in: the potter's own life was handed to him on terms, and will be demanded back. The King James reading "out when" is a printing slip for "but when"; other printings have "but."

15:9

"Brass" in the King James Bible means bronze, an alloy of copper and tin, which is what ancient founders cast. Brass in the modern sense, copper mixed with zinc, was barely known. "Counterfeit things" here means imitations or copies rather than forged money; the point is that the craftsman prides himself on making convincing fakes.

15:10

"Vile" in 1611 meant cheap, of low value, worth little. It did not mean disgusting. The verse is pricing the man's heart, hope and life against ashes, dirt and clay, and finding them worth less.

15:11

"Inspired" is being used in its literal old sense of breathed into, paired with "breathed in" in the next phrase. The language deliberately echoes the account in Genesis of God breathing life into the first human being.

15:12

The King James "market for gain" translates a Greek word for a public festival, the kind of crowded religious fair at which traders set up stalls and did brisk business. The image is of life treated as one long holiday crowd to be worked for profit.

15:13

A carved image is a statue cut out of wood or stone. People made them and then treated them as gods.

15:14

From chapter 11 onward this book is comparing Israel with Egypt, and "the enemies of thy people, that hold them in subjection" points to the Egyptians of the exodus story. The animal worship attacked in verse 18 is Egyptian religion specifically.

15:15

The catalogue of an idol's useless eyes, nose, ears, hands and feet is a set piece of Jewish mockery of images, repeated in Psalm 115 and Psalm 135 and in Jeremiah. A reader of the period would recognize the form at once.

15:16

"Borrowed his own spirit" continues the loan image of verse 8: the maker's own life is not his property but something held on loan. The closing line can be read two ways, and the Greek allows both: no one can make a god that resembles himself, and no one, being only human, has the power to make a god that is his equal.

15:18

Egyptian religion gave cultic honor to a range of animals, among them the crocodile, the ibis, the cat, the dung beetle and various snakes. Jewish writers of this period single out the creatures their own law classed as unclean or loathsome, which is why the verse says the objects of this worship are the most hateful sort.

15:19

The argument depends on the opening of Genesis, where God looks at the creatures he has made, pronounces them good and blesses them. The claim here is that these particular animals were passed over: they received neither the approving verdict nor the blessing, and they are not even attractive enough to explain why anyone would want them.