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But You, our Elohim, are gracious and true, slow to anger, and governing all things with compassion.
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For even if we sin, we are Yours, knowing Your Power. But we shall not sin, because we know that we are counted as Yours.
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For to know You is complete Righteousness, and to know Your Power is the root of immortality.
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For neither did the evil invention of Adam’s craft lead us astray, nor the fruitless labor of painters— a figure stained with varied colors,
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whose appearance awakens desire in a fool, so that he longs for the lifeless form of a dead image.
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Lovers of evil things, and worthy of such hopes, are both those who make them, those who desire them, and those who worship them.
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For a potter, kneading soft earth with labor, forms each vessel for our service. And from the same clay he makes both vessels that serve clean purposes and others for the opposite, all alike. But what shall be the use of each, the worker in clay is the judge.
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And by evil labor he forms from the same clay a worthless mighty one— he who only a little before was himself made from earth, and after a short time shall return to that from which he was taken, when the being entrusted to him is demanded back.
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Yet his concern is not that he is about to die, nor that his life is brief, but that he may compete with workers in gold and silver, and imitate workers in bronze, and count it glory that he makes false things.
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His heart is ashes, his hope more worthless than earth, and his life of less honor than clay,
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because he did not know the One who formed him, who breathed into him an active being and breathed into him a living ruach.
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But they considered our life to be a game, and our existence a festival for gain. For, they say, “One must gain from every source, even from evil.”
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For this one, more than all others, knows that he sins when from earthly matter he makes fragile vessels and carved images.
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But most foolish of all, and more miserable than the being of an infant, were the enemies who oppressed Your People.
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For they considered all the idols of the nations to be mighty ones— those whose eyes cannot see, whose nostrils cannot breathe air, whose ears cannot hear, whose fingers cannot touch, and whose feet are useless for walking.
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For an Adam made them, and one who borrowed his own ruach formed them. For no Adam is able to form a mighty one like himself.
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Being mortal, he produces a dead thing with lawless hands. For he himself is better than the things he worships, because he lived, but they never lived.
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And they worship even the creatures most hateful, which, compared with other beasts, are worse in understanding.
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Nor are they beautiful so as to be desired by sight, as other creatures are. But they escaped both the praise of Elohim and His blessing.