Book V - Snyder Bible

188
one will steal stone or crockery Elohim. Hence those seem to
be the more miserable whose more precious metal exposes
them to the greater danger. Since, then, they can be stolen,
since they must be guarded by men, since they can be melted,
and weighed out, and forged with hammers, ought men possessed
of understanding to hold them as Elohim?
Chapter XVI: Yahweh Alone a Fit Object of Worship
Oh, into what wretched plight the imagination of men has
fallen! For if it is reckoned the greatest folly to fear the dead,
what shall we judge of those who fear something that is worse
than the dead are? For those images are not even to be reckoned
among the number of the dead, because they were never
alive. Even the sepulchers of the dead are preferable to them,
since, although they are now dead, yet they once had life; but
those whom you worship never possessed even such base life
as is in all, the life of frogs and owls. But why say more about
them, since it is enough to say to him who adores them: Do
you not see that he whom you adore sees not, hear that he
whom you adore hears not, and understand that he understands
not? For he is the work of mans hand and necessarily
is void of understanding. You therefore worship an Elohim
without sense, whereas every one who has sense believes that
not even those things are to be worshipped which have been
made by the true Elohim and have sense, such as the sun,
moon, and stars, and all things that are in heaven and upon
earth. For they think it reasonable that not those things which
have been made for the service of the world, but the Creator of
those things themselves, and of the whole world, should be
worshipped. For even these things rejoice when He is adored
and worshipped, and do not take it well that the honor of the
Creator should be bestowed on the creation. For the worship
of Elohim alone is acceptable who alone is uncreated, and all
things also are His creation. For as it belongs to him who alone
is uncreated to be Yahweh, so everything that has been
created is not truly Elohim