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Again, one preparing to sail, and about to journey over raging waves, calls upon a piece of wood more fragile than the vessel that carries him.
Verse 1. Him. The folly of exposing one’s life, without necessity, to such imminent danger at sea, is great; though much less than to confide in idols, ( Calmet.) which are commonly made of more corruptible wood than ships. Worthington.
For the hunger for profit planned it, and wisdom was the craftsman who built it.
Your providence, O Father, guides it along, because even in the sea you gave a way, and in the waves a sure path,
Verse 3. Waves. Of the Red sea, (Vat.) through which the Israelites passed, ( Worthington.) or rather hast taught navigation to Noe, (verse 6) and enabled him to build the finest vessel that ever appeared.
showing that you can save out of every danger, that even a man without skill may put to sea.
It is your will that the works of your wisdom should not be ineffective. Therefore men also entrust their lives to a little piece of wood, and passing through the surge on a raft come safely to land.
Verse 5. Saved. Before the invention of the compass, long voyages were deemed the effects of rashness, or of great confidence in Providence. Calmet.
For in the old time also, when proud giants were perishing, the hope of the world, taking refuge on a raft, your hand guided the seed of generations of the race of men.
The Greek text here may be corrupt.
For blessed is wood through which comes righteousness;
Verse 7. Cometh. By which Noe was preserved, (Corn. a Lap.) or criminals are executed. Jansenius—The author foretells the redemption of mankind on the cross. Worthington. Galatians 3:13. Saint Augustine de Civ. Dei. Calmet. xv. 26. Saint Ambrose Ps. cxviii. ser. 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 called a god.
For both the ungodly and his ungodliness are alike hateful to God;
for truly the deed will be punished together with him who committed it.
Therefore also there will be a visitation among the idols of the nation, because, though formed of things which God created, they were made an abomination, stumbling blocks to the souls of men, and a snare to the feet of the foolish.
For the devising of idols was the beginning of fornication, and the invention of them the corruption of life.
Verse 12. Fornication. Invention of idols brought people to give way to spiritual fornication, and corruption of manners. Worthington.—They freely practised what was sanctioned by the example of their gods. Saint Augustine de Civ. Dei. ii. 7. and 3 Kennicott. 14:24 and 4 Kennicott. 23:7, 3. Calmet.
For they didn’t exist from the beginning, and they won’t exist forever.
Verse 13. Beginning. Truth is always prior to falsehood. Bible.—Josephus (Ant. i. 4.) says, idolatry commenced in the 8th generation, and the Jews assert, under Enos. “Then began the name of God to be profaned,” as the Chal. and so forth translate, Genesis 4:26. Saint Jerome q. Heb.—The corruption of morals was the natural consequence. verse 12.—Ever. Christ shall destroy them. Calmet.
For by the boastfulness of men they entered into the world, and therefore a speedy end was planned for them.
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 human being, and delivered to those that were under him mysteries and solemn rites.
Verse 15. Servants. This was at first done privately, and made the way for public idolatry. Calvin attempts to refute this assertion, maintaining that Laban’s idols were more ancient, and not images. But this argument is nugatory, as theraphim may be rendered either images, (Prot. 1552.) or idols. Prot. 1603. The latter version is preferable, as Laban called them his gods, and the Greek and Latin have idols. It is also certain, that Ninus set up the image of his father, Jupiter Belus, to be honoured by the people, before Abraham’s time; and the fathers agree, that the making of images in memory of the dead, was the first occasion of idolatry. Saint John Chrysostom hom. 87. in Matt. Saint Jerome in Osee ii. and so forth Worthington.—Nimrod ordered divine honours to be paid to his deceased son. Gul. Paris. Leg.—Yet this fact is not certain. Diophante, the Lacedemonian, assigns the same origin to idolatry as is here given. Grot.
Afterward the ungodly custom, in process of time grown strong, was kept as a law, and the engraved images received worship by the commandments of princes.
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.
But worship was raised to a yet higher pitch, even by those who didn’t know him, urged forward by the ambition of the architect;
Verse 18. Ignorant. The arts of sculpture and painting may be prejudicial, ( Calmet.) and were therefore banished by Moses from his republic, (Philo) as the Jews were so prone to idolatry. Calmet. 15:4. The case is different with us. Bible.
for he, wishing perhaps to please his ruler, used his art to force the likeness toward a greater beauty.
So the multitude, allured by reason of the grace of his handiwork, now consider an object of devotion him that a little before was honored as a man.
And this became an ambush, because men, in bondage either to calamity or to tyranny, invested stones and stocks with the Name that shouldn’t be shared.
Verse 21. Name. It cannot with propriety be given to any but God. Worthington.—The Jews explain this of the name Jehovah, which they will never pronounce. Calmet.
Afterward it was not enough for them to go astray concerning the knowledge of God, but also, while they live in a great war of ignorance, they call a multitude of evils peace.
For either slaughtering children in solemn rites, or celebrating secret mysteries, or holding frenzied revels of strange customs,
Verse 23. Children. This was done by the Chanaanites, Hebrews, and so forth Calmet. 12:23. Isaiah 57:5.—Hidden. The sacrifices of Ceres, Bacchus, and so forth were performed in the dark, and horrible impurities were committed. Ephesians 5:12.—Madness. Before they be initiated in the mysteries of Ceres, or prostitute themselves in honour of the deities of impurity, (Jos. Ant. xviii. 4.) in the very temples. Quo non prostrat femina templo? Juv. ix. Calmet.—Many crimes proceed from idolatry. Worthington.
no longer do they guard either life or purity of marriage, but one brings upon another either death by treachery, or anguish by adultery.
And all things confusedly are filled with blood and murder, theft and deceit, corruption, faithlessness, tumult, perjury,
confusion about what is good, forgetfulness of favors, ingratitude for benefits, defiling of souls, confusion of sex, disorder in marriage, adultery and wantonness.
For the worship of idols that may not be named is a beginning and cause and end of every evil.
For their worshipers either make merry to madness, or prophesy lies, or live unrighteously, or lightly commit perjury.
Verse 28. Mad. Like the Bacchanalian women, running crowned with serpents, and eating raw flesh.—Lies. The delusions of the devil, or the fraud of priests.—Easily. Those who believe not in religion, or in the power of him by who they swear, can give no security by an oath. They fear no harm. verse 29. Yet they are perjured if they believe Jupiter, for example, to be a god, (Saint Augustine ep. 54. ad Pub.) and if they do not, they are impious; abusing an oath, which is in itself sacred. Calmet.
For putting their trust in lifeless idols, when they have sworn a wicked oath, they expect not to suffer harm.
But on both counts, the just doom will pursue them, because they had evil thoughts of God by giving heed to idols, and swore unrighteously in deceit through contempt for holiness.
For it is not the power of things by which men swear, but it is the just penalty for those who sin that always visits the transgression of the unrighteous.
Verse 31. Just. Lit. “the punishment of sinners always walketh about,” and so forth Bible.—“The stone does not hear thee speaking, but God punishes the deceiver.” Saint Augustine—The pagans supposed that their idols sometimes punished perjury. Juv. Sat. viii.—It is God who does it. Calmet.