The interpretation timeline

Wis 14:16

How this passage has been read — the sources, oldest to newest.

From the early Church Fathers to now.

Wis 14:16 · Douay-Rheims
“Then in process of time, wicked custom prevailing, this error was kept as a law, and statues were worshipped by the commandment of tyrants.”
Scholastic c. 1100 – 1500
1274
A.D.
Bonaventure Medieval
c. A.D. 1221–1274
“Then with the passage of time, that is, a delay of time, as the wicked custom grew strong, which ought rather to be uprooted than maintained, because length of time does not diminish sin, but rather increases it: this error, namely, of worshipping idols, as though it were a law, that is, under a precept, was observed: Jeremiah 10: "The laws of the peoples are vain"; likewise Isaiah 10: "Woe to those who enact wicked laws"! And by the command of tyrants, that is, of wicked rulers, figments were worshipped: whence Antiochus compelled the Jews to the worship of the nations, 1 Maccabees 1; and Nebuchadnezzar forced them to adore his statue, Daniel 3.”
Source
Modern · 1953 →

The in-app commentary runs from the Fathers to the early-modern record, then stops — that's where the public-domain sources end, not where the reading does. For the modern reading, follow the sources directly.