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Again, one preparing to sail and about to pass through violent waves calls upon a piece of wood more fragile than the vessel carrying him.
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For desire for gain devised the vessel, and wisdom was the craftsman who built it.
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But Your providence, O Father, guides it, because You gave a path even in the sea and a safe way among the waves,
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showing that You are able to save from every danger, even when an ish goes to sea without skill.
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Yet You do not will that the works of Your wisdom should be useless. Therefore Adam entrusts his being to a little piece of wood and crosses the waves upon a vessel and is preserved.
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For even in the beginning, when arrogant giants were perishing, the hope of the world, taking refuge upon a vessel, left to the age the seed of generation, being guided by Your hand.
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For blessed is wood through which Righteousness comes to pass.
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But the thing made by hands is accursed, and so is the one who made it— he, because he made it, and it, because though corruptible, it was called a mighty one.
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For equally hateful to Elohim are both the wicked and his wickedness.
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For that which was made shall be punished together with the one who made it.
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Therefore there shall be a visitation upon the idols of the nations, because in the creation of Elohim they became an abomination, and stumbling blocks to the beings of Adam, and snares to the feet of the foolish.
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For the devising of idols was the beginning of fornication, and their invention the corruption of life.
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For they did not exist from the beginning, nor shall they remain forever.
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For through the empty glory of Adam they entered into the world, and therefore a swift end was appointed for them.
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For a father, grieving bitterly for a son taken from him too soon, made an image of the dead child and then honored what was merely a dead Adam as a mighty one, and handed down to those under him rites and ceremonies.
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Then in time the wicked custom grew strong and was guarded as law. And by commands of rulers, carved images were worshiped.
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And those whom Adam could not honor in their presence because they lived far away, they represented from a distance, making a visible likeness of the king they honored, so that through zeal they might flatter the absent one as though present.
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And the ambition of the craftsman also drove even those who did not know him toward excessive honor.
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For he, perhaps desiring to please the ruler, used his skill to make the likeness more beautiful than the original.
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And the multitude, drawn away by the beauty of the work, now regarded as a mighty one the one whom shortly before they honored merely as an Adam.
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And this became a snare to life, because Adam, enslaved either to calamity or to rulership, gave to stones and wood the Name that should not be shared.
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And it was not enough for them to wander in the knowledge of Elohim, but living in a great war of ignorance, they call such evils shalom.
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For while they practice murderous rites, secret mysteries, or wild feasts with strange customs,
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they no longer guard either life or marriage pure, but one kills another by treachery, or grieves him through adultery.
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And all things are confused together— bloodshed, murder, theft, deceit, corruption, faithlessness, tumult, false oath,
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disturbance of good things, forgetfulness of favors, defilement of beings, confusion of generation, disorder in marriage, adultery, and shamelessness.
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For the worship of nameless idols is the beginning, cause, and end of every evil.
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For either they rage in celebration, or prophesy falsely, or live unrighteously, or readily swear false oaths.
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For trusting in lifeless idols, they expect no harm from swearing falsely.
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But Judgment shall come upon them for both things: because they thought wrongly about Elohim by giving themselves to idols, and because they swore crookedly and falsely in contempt of holiness.
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For it is not the power of those by whom they swear, but the Judgment appointed for sinners that always pursues the transgression of the unrighteous.