7For the potter, laboriously working the soft earth,

molds for our service each single article:

He fashions out of the same clay

both the vessels that serve for clean purposes

and their opposites, all alike;

As to what shall be the use of each vessel of either class

the worker in clay is the judge.f

8* With misspent toil he molds a meaningless god from the selfsame clay,

though he himself shortly before was made from the earth,

And is soon to go whence he was taken,

when the life that was lent him is demanded back.g

9But his concern is not that he is to die

nor that his span of life is brief;

Rather, he vies with goldsmiths and silversmiths

and emulates molders of bronze,

and takes pride in fashioning counterfeits.h

10Ashes his heart is!* more worthless than earth is his hope,i

more ignoble than clay his life;

11Because he knew not the one who fashioned him,

and breathed into him a quickening soul,

and infused a vital spirit.j

12Instead, he esteemed our life a mere game,

and our span of life a holiday for gain;

“For one must,” says he, “make a profit in every way, be it even from evil.”k

13For more than anyone else he knows that he is sinning,

when out of earthen stuff he creates fragile vessels and idols alike.

14But most stupid of all and worse than senseless in mind,

are the enemies of your people who enslaved them.l

15For they esteemed all the idols of the nations as gods,

which cannot use their eyes to see,

nor nostrils to breathe the air,

Nor ears to hear,

nor fingers on their hands for feeling;

even their feet are useless to walk with.m

16For it was a mere human being who made them;n

one living on borrowed breath who fashioned them.

For no one is able to fashion a god like himself;

17he is mortal, and what he makes with lawless hands is dead.

For he is better than the things he worships;

he at least lives, but never his idols.

18* Besides, they worship the most loathsome beasts—o

as regards stupidity, these are worse than the rest,*

19For beasts are neither good-looking nor desirable;

they have escaped both the approval of God and his blessing.p