7. For blessed has been wood through which comes righteousness:
8. But the idol made with hands is accursed, itself and he that made it; Because his was the working, and the corruptible thing was named a god:
9. For both the ungodly doer and his ungodliness are alike hateful to God;
10. For verily the deed shall be punished together with him that committed it.
11. Therefore also among the idols of the nations shall there be a visitation, Because, though formed of things which God created, they were made an abomination, And stumbling blocks to the souls of men, And a snare to the feet of the foolish.
12. For the devising of idols was the beginning of 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 vaingloriousness of men they entered into the world, And therefore was a speedy end devised for them.
15. For a father worn with untimely grief, Making an image of the child quickly taken away, Now honored him as a god which was then a dead man, And delivered to those that were under him mysteries and solemn rites.
16. Afterward the ungodly custom, in process of time grown strong, was kept as a law, And by the commandments of princes the graven images received worship.
17. And when men could not honor them in presence because they lived far off, Imagining the likeness from afar, They made a visible image of the king whom they honored, That by their zeal they might flatter the absent as if present.