Key Verse Spotlight
Wisdom 14:17 - Meaning and Application
Understand how this verse speaks to what you're facing and how to apply it today
Translation: World English Bible — Catholic Edition
" 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. "
Wisdom 14:17
Verse in Context
Understanding the surrounding verses prevents misinterpretation:
15 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.
16 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.
17 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.
18 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;
19 for he, wishing perhaps to please his ruler, used his art to force the likeness toward a greater beauty.
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Wisdom 14:1
"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."
Wisdom 14:2
"For the hunger for profit planned it, and wisdom was the craftsman who built it."
Wisdom 14:3
"Your providence, O Father, guides it along, because even in the sea you gave a way, and in the waves a sure path,"
Wisdom 14:4
"showing that you can save out of every danger, that even a man without skill may put to sea."
Wisdom 14:5
"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."
Wisdom 14:6
"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."
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