Wisdom of Solomon 14:14-21
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14 For by the vain glory of men they entered into the world, and therefore shall they come shortly to an end.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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18 Also the singular diligence of the artificer did help to set forward the ignorant to more superstition.
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19 For he, peradventure willing to please one in authority, forced all his skill to make the resemblance of the best fashion.
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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.
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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.