17
Whom men could not honour in presence, because they dwelt far off, they took the counterfeit of his visage from far, and made an express image of a king whom they honoured, to the end that by this their forwardness they might flatter him that was absent, as if he were present.
18
Also the singular diligence of the artificer did help to set forward the ignorant to more superstition.
19
For he, peradventure willing to please one in authority, forced all his skill to make the resemblance of the best fashion.
20
And so the multitude, allured by the grace of the work, took him now for a god, which a little before was but honoured.
21
And this was an occasion to deceive the world: for men, serving either calamity or tyranny, did ascribe unto stones and stocks the incommunicable name.
The Brenton translation of the Septuagint is in the public domain.