{14:1} Again, another, thinking to sail, and beginning to make his voyage through the raging waves, calls upon a piece of wood more fragile than the wood that carries him.
{14:2} For this is what desire has contrived to be acquired, and the craftsman has formed its understanding.
{14:3} But your providence, O Father, governs, because you have provided for both a way in the sea and a very reliable path among the waves,
{14:4} revealing that you are able to save out of all things, even if someone were to go to sea without skill.
{14:5} But, so that the works of your wisdom might not be empty, therefore, men trust their souls even to a little piece of wood, and, crossing over the sea by raft, they are set free.
{14:6} But, from the beginning, when the proud giants were perishing, the hope of the world, fleeing by boat, gave back to future ages a seed of birth, which was governed by your hand.
{14:7} For blessed is the wood through which justice is made.
{14:8} But, through the hand that makes the idol, both it, and he who made it, is accursed: he, indeed, because it has been served by him, and it, because, though it is fragile, it is called ‘god.’
{14:9} But the impious and his impiety are similarly offensive to God.
{14:10} For that which is made, together with him who made it, will suffer torments.
{14:11} Because of this, and according to the idolatries of the nations, there will be no refuge, for the things created by God have been made into hatred, and into a temptation to the souls of men, and into a snare for the feet of the foolish.
{14:12} For the beginning of fornication is the search for idols, and from their invention comes corruption of life.
{14:13} For they neither existed from the beginning, nor will they exist forever.
{14:14} For by the great emptiness of men they came into the world, and therefore their end is soon discovered.
{14:15} For a father, embittered with the suffering of grief, made an image of his son, who had been suddenly taken away from him, and then, he who had died as a man, now begins to be worshiped as if a god, and so rites and sacrifices are established among his servants.
{14:16} Then, in the course of time, iniquity gains strength within this erroneous custom, so that this error has been observed as if it were a law, and this figment has been worshiped at the command of tyrants.
{14:17} And those, whom men could not openly honor because they were far off, a likeness of them was carried from far off, and from it they made a similar image of the king that they wanted to honor, so that, by their solicitude, they might worship he who was absent, just as if he were present.
{14:18} Yet, it passes into their care, and those whom they did not know, they love because of the excellence of the artist.
{14:19} For he, wishing to please the one who hired him, embellished his art, so as to fashion a better likeness.
{14:20} But the multitude of men, brought together by the beauty of the work, now considered him to be a god, whom they had formerly honored as a man.
{14:21} And this was the deception of human life: that men, serving either their own inclination or their kings, assigned the unutterable name to stones and wood.
{14:22} And it was not enough for them to go astray concerning the knowledge of God, but also, while living in a great war of ignorance, they call so many and such great evils ‘peace.’
{14:23} For either they sacrifice their own sons, or they make dark sacrifices, or they hold vigils full of madness,
{14:24} so that now they neither protect life, nor preserve a clean marriage, but one kills another through envy, or grieves him by adultery.
{14:25} And all things are mixed together: blood, murder, theft and fraud, corruption and infidelity, disturbances and perjury, disorder within good things,
{14:26} forgetfulness of God, pollution of souls, alteration of procreation, inconstancy of marriage, unnatural adultery and homosexuality.
{14:27} For the worship of unspeakable idols is the cause, and the beginning and the end, of all evil.
{14:28} For they either act with madness while happy, or they insistently speak wild lies, or they live unjustly, or they are quick to commit perjury.
{14:29} For, while they trust in idols, which are without a soul, vowing evil, they hope not to be harmed themselves.
{14:30} Therefore, from both sides it will fittingly happen, because they have thought evil of God, paying attention to idols, and because they have sworn unjustly, in guile despising justice.
{14:31} For swearing is not virtue, but sinning always comes around to a punishment according to the transgression of the unjust.

{13:1} But all men are vain, who are not under the knowledge of God, and who, from these good things that are seen, were not able to understand he who is, nor, by paying attention to the works, did they acknowledge he who was the artisan.
{13:2} Instead, they had considered either the fire, or the air, or the atmosphere, or the circle of stars, or the great sea, or the sun and moon, to be the gods that rule the world.
{13:3} If they, being delighted by such sights, supposed them to be gods, let them know how great the Lord of them is in splendor. For he who created all things is the author of beauty.
{13:4} Or, if they wondered at their power and their effects, let them understand by these things, that he who created them is mightier than they are.
{13:5} For, by the greatness of the creation and its beauty, the creator of these will be able to be seen discernibly.
{13:6} Yet, up to this point, the complaint about this is lesser. For perhaps they made a mistake in this, while desiring and seeking to find God.
{13:7} And, indeed, having some familiarity with him through his works, they search, and they are persuaded, because the things that they are seeing are good.
{13:8} But, then again, neither can their debt be ignored.
{13:9} For, if they were able to know enough so that they could value the universe, how is it they did not easily discover the Lord of it?
{13:10} Yet they are unhappy, and their hope is among the dead, for they have called ‘gods’ the works of the hands of men, gold and silver, the inventions of skill, and the likeness of animals, or a useless stone, the work of an ancient hand.
{13:11} Or, it is as if a craftsman, a workman of the forest, had cut straight wood, and, with his expertise, shaved off all of its bark, and, with his skill, diligently fashioned a vessel, practical for use in life,
{13:12} and even the remains of his work were exhausted in the preparation of food;
{13:13} and, from the remainder of this, which has become useful for nothing, a curved piece of wood and full of knots, he diligently carves it in his spare time, and, through the knowledge of his art, forms it and makes it in the image of a man,
{13:14} or something comparable to an animal, thoroughly rubbing it with red ochre, to make it red with the color of the pigment, and to cover every imperfection which is in it;
{13:15} and it is as if he made a fitting resting place for it, even setting it in a wall and fastening it with iron,
{13:16} providing for it, lest it should fall, knowing that it is unable to help itself, for it is an image and it is in need of help.
{13:17} And then, making an offering, he inquires about his wealth, and about his sons, and about marriage. And he is not ashamed to talk to that which has no soul.
{13:18} And for health, indeed, something unhealthy is being prayed to, and for life, he petitions what is dead, and for help, he calls upon something helpless,
{13:19} and for a good journey, he entreats that which is unable to walk, and for acquiring, and for working, and for success in all things, he entreats that which is useless in all things.