Wisdom of Solomon, 17

1. Yes, your judgements are great and impenetrable, which is why uninstructed souls have gone astray.

1. Great are thy judgments and hard to describe; therefore unintructed souls have gone astray.

2. While the wicked supposed they had a holy nation in their power, they themselves lay prisoners of the dark, in the fetters of long night, confined under their own roofs, banished from eternal providence.

2. For when lawless men supposed that they held the holy nation in their power, they themselves lay as captives of darkness and prisoners of long night, shut in under their roofs, exiles from eternal providence.

3. While they thought to remain unnoticed with their secret sins, curtained by dark forgetfulness, they were scattered in fearful dismay, terrified by apparitions.

3. For thinking that in their secret sins they were unobserved behind a dark curtain of forgetfulness, they were scattered, terribly alarmed, and appalled by specters.

4. The hiding place sheltering them could not ward off their fear; terrifying noises echoed round them; and gloomy, grim-faced spectres haunted them.

4. For not even the inner chamber that held them protected them from fear, but terrifying sounds rang out around them, and dismal phantoms with gloomy faces appeared.

5. No fire had power enough to give them light, nor could the brightly blazing stars illuminate that dreadful night.

5. And no power of fire was able to give light, nor did the brilliant flames of the stars avail to illumine that hateful night.

6. The only light for them was a great, spontaneous blaze -- a fearful sight to see! And in their terror, once that sight had vanished, they thought what they had seen more terrible than ever.

6. Nothing was shining through to them except a dreadful, self-kindled fire, and in terror they deemed the things which they saw to be worse than that unseen appearance.

7. Their magical illusions were powerless now, and their claims to intelligence were ignominiously confounded;

7. The delusions of their magic art lay humbled, and their boasted wisdom was scornfully rebuked.

8. for those who promised to drive out fears and disorders from sick souls were now themselves sick with ludicrous fright.

8. For those who promised to drive off the fears and disorders of a sick soul were sick themselves with ridiculous fear.

9. Even when there was nothing frightful to scare them, the vermin creeping past and the hissing of reptiles filled them with panic;

9. For even if nothing disturbing frightened them, yet, scared by the passing of beasts and the hissing of serpents,

10. they died convulsed with fright, refusing even to look at empty air, which cannot be eluded anyhow!

10. they perished in trembling fear, refusing to look even at the air, though it nowhere could be avoided.

11. Wickedness is confessedly very cowardly, and it condemns itself; under pressure from conscience it always assumes the worst.

11. For wickedness is a cowardly thing, condemned by its own testimony; distressed by conscience, it has always exaggerated the difficulties.

12. Fear, indeed, is nothing other than the failure of the help offered by reason;

12. For fear is nothing but surrender of the helps that come from reason;

13. the less you rely within yourself on this, the more alarming it is not to know the cause of your suffering.

13. and the inner expectation of help, being weak, prefers ignorance of what causes the torment.

14. And they, all locked in the same sleep, while that darkness lasted -- which was in fact quite powerless and had issued from the depths of equally powerless Hades-

14. But throughout the night, which was really powerless, and which beset them from the recesses of powerless Hades, they all slept the same sleep,

15. were now chased by monstrous spectres, now paralysed by the fainting of their souls; for a sudden, unexpected terror had attacked them.

15. and now were driven by monstrous specters, and now were paralyzed by their souls' surrender, for sudden and unexpected fear overwhelmed them.

16. And thus, whoever it might be that fell there stayed clamped to the spot in this prison without bars.

16. And whoever was there fell down, and thus was kept shut up in a prison not made of iron;

17. Whether he was ploughman or shepherd, or somebody at work in the desert, he was still overtaken and suffered the inevitable fate, for all had been bound by the one same chain of darkness.

17. for whether he was a farmer or a shepherd or a workman who toiled in the wilderness, he was seized, and endured the inescapable fate; for with one chain of darkness they all were bound.

18. The soughing of the wind, the tuneful noise of birds in the spreading branches, the measured beat of water in its powerful course, the headlong din of rocks cascading down,

18. Whether there came a whistling wind, or a melodious sound of birds in wide-spreading branches, or the rhythm of violently rushing water,

19. the unseen course of bounding animals, the roaring of the most savage of wild beasts, the echo rebounding from the clefts in the mountains, all held them paralysed with fear.

19. or the harsh crash of rocks hurled down, or the unseen running of leaping animals, or the sound of the most savage roaring beasts, or an echo thrown back from a hollow of the mountains, it paralyzed them with terror.

20. For the whole world shone with the light of day and, unhindered, went about its work;

20. For the whole world was illumined with brilliant light, and was engaged in unhindered work,

21. over them alone there spread a heavy darkness, image of the dark that would receive them. But heavier than the darkness was the burden they were to themselves.

21. while over those men alone heavy night was spread, an image of the darkness that was destined to receive them; but still heavier than darkness were they to themselves.