Wisdom 14 - Summary

A man about to sail calls upon a piece of wood more rotten than the ship that carries him, though the Father's providence guides ships, as when 'the hope of the world' escaped in a weak vessel: 'blessed is the wood whereby righteousness cometh.' The idol and its maker are cursed alike. The author traces how idolatry began: a grieving father made an image of his dead child and honoured it as a god; images of distant kings were worshipped to flatter them, and the artist's skill won over the crowd. Every evil followed, for idol worship is 'the beginning, the cause, and the end, of all evil'.