Wisdom of Solomon 14:11-21

11 Therefore 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.
12 For the devising of idols was the beginning of spiritual fornication, and the invention of them the corruption of life.
13 For neither were they from the beginning, neither shall they be for ever.
14 For by the vain glory of men they entered into the world, and therefore shall they come shortly to an end.
15 For 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.
16 Thus in process of time an ungodly custom grown strong was kept as a law, and graven images were worshipped by the commandments of kings.
17 Whom 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.
18 Also the singular diligence of the artificer did help to set forward the ignorant to more superstition.
19 For he, peradventure willing to please one in authority, forced all his skill to make the resemblance of the best fashion.
20 And so the multitude, allured by the grace of the work, took him now for a god, which a little before was but honoured.
21 And this was an occasion to deceive the world: for men, serving either calamity or tyranny, did ascribe unto stones and stocks the incommunicable name.