Wisdom of Solomon 14:14
King James VersionSource notes
“For by the vain glory of men they entered into the world, and therefore shall they come shortly to an end.”
Context
11Therefore even upon the idols of the Gentiles shall there be a visitation: because in the creature of God they are become an abomination, and stumblingblocks to the souls of men, and a snare to the feet of the unwise.
12For the devising of idols was the beginning of spiritual fornication, and the invention of them the corruption of life.
13For neither were they from the beginning, neither shall they be for ever.
14For by the vain glory of men they entered into the world, and therefore shall they come shortly to an end.
15For a father afflicted with untimely mourning, when he hath made an image of his child soon taken away, now honoured him as a god, which was then a dead man, and delivered to those that were under him ceremonies and sacrifices.
16Thus in process of time an ungodly custom grown strong was kept as a law, and graven images were worshipped by the commandments of kings.
17Whom 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.