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But you, our God, are gracious and true, patient, and in mercy ordering all things.
Verse 1. Mercy. The pagans have no real respect for their gods: the fear them not. Calmet.—But we know that Thou governest all, ( Bible.) and will punish us, if we transgress. Calmet.
For even if we sin, we are yours, knowing your dominion; but we will not sin, knowing that we have been accounted yours.
For to be acquainted with you is perfect righteousness, and to know your dominion is the root of immortality.
Greek entire.
For we weren’t led astray by any evil plan of men’s, nor yet by painters’ fruitless labor, a form stained with varied colors,
Verse 4. Us. He wrote after the captivity, when the Jews abhorred idolatry, ( Calmet.) as they might also do at the beginning of Solomon’s reign. Bible.—Picture. It is not certain that the art was known in the days of Moses, or that he expressly forbade it. Pliny says it was discovered at Corinth, by making the outlines of a man’s shadow on the wall. Afterwards one colour was used, till a variety was found to represent things more perfectly, (L. xxxv. 3, 4.) so as to deceive the senses, for which reason it is styled a fruitless labour. Calmet.
the sight of which leads fools into lust. Their desire is for the breathless form of a dead image.
Some authorities read reproach.
Lovers of evil things, and worthy of such hopes, are those who make, desire, and worship them.
For a potter, kneading soft earth, laboriously molds each article for our service. He fashions out of the same clay both the vessels that minister to clean uses, and those of a contrary sort, all in like manner. What shall be the use of each article of either sort, the potter is the judge.
Also, laboring to an evil end, he molds a vain god out of the same clay, he who, having but a little before been made of earth, after a short space goes his way to the earth out of which he was taken, when he is required to give back the soul which was lent him.
Or, life
However he has anxious care, not because his powers must fail, nor because his span of life is short; But he compares himself with goldsmiths and silversmiths, and he imitates molders in brass, and considers it great that he molds counterfeit gods.
Or, copper
His heart is ashes. His hope is of less value than earth. His life is of less honor than clay,
Verse 10. Clay. In death, those who have trusted in creatures, shall be abandoned by all.
because he was ignorant of him who molded him, and of him that inspired into him an active soul, and breathed into him a vital spirit.
Verse 11. Worketh. God gives life, and also the rational soul. Genesis 2:7.
Greek a soul that moves to activity.
Or, life
But he accounted our life to be a game, and our lifetime a festival for profit; for, he says, one must get gain however one can, even if it is by evil.
Verse 12. Evil. This is the maxim of worldlings. Calmet.—Virtus post nummos. Hor. i. ep. 1.—Our occupations are like those of children. They presently perish, or we must quit them. Saint John Chrysostom hom. xlvii. ad Pop.—We must strive to act our part well. Libertines deem this life a comedy, and represent religion as an imposition. Calmet.—They are like atheists, as they leave the true God, who seek gain by idols. Worthington.
Some authorities read they accounted.
Or, way of life
For this man, beyond all others, knows that he sins, out of earthy matter making brittle vessels and engraved images.
But most foolish and more miserable than a baby, are the enemies of your people, who oppressed them;
Verse 14. In their pride, they threaten more than they can perform, (Isaiah 16:6) or they take images to be gods, which infants only imagine are men, as Lactantius observes, quoting Lucilius,—
Ut pueri infantes credunt signa omnia ahena
Vivere et esse homines. Bible.
—Measure. They become insolent, and despise and persecute the servants of God. Worthington.
because they even considered all the idols of the nations to be gods, which have neither the use of eyes for seeing, nor nostrils for drawing breath, nor ears to hear, nor fingers for handling, and their feet are helpless for walking.
For a man made them, and one whose own spirit is borrowed molded them; for no one has power as a man to mold a god like himself.
But, being mortal, he makes a dead thing by the work of lawless hands; for he is better than the objects of his worship, since he indeed had life, but they never did.
Yes, and they worship the creatures that are most hateful, for, being compared as to lack of sense, these are worse than all others;
Neither, as seen beside other creatures, are they beautiful, so that one should desire them, but they have escaped both the praise of God and his blessing.
Verse 19. Beasts. They are deformed, ( Bible.) and seem to have been cursed by God, like the serpent. Genesis 3:14. Calmet.—Fled from. Or “have banished” (Lorin.) God’s praise, claiming it for themselves. Menochius.