17
When people could not honor monarchs in their presence, since they lived at a distance, they imagined their appearance far away, and made a visible image of the king whom they honored, so that by their zeal they might flatter the absent one as though present.
18
Then the ambition of the artisan impelled even those who did not know the king to intensify their worship.
19
For he, perhaps wishing to please his ruler, skillfully forced the likeness to take more beautiful form,
20
and the multitude, attracted by the charm of his work, now regarded as an object of worship the one whom shortly before they had honored as a human being.
21
And this became a hidden trap for humankind, because people, in bondage to misfortune or to royal authority, bestowed on objects of stone or wood the name that ought not to be shared.
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.