Wisdom of Solomon 17

Your judgments are great, and they cannot be put into words. That is why untaught souls have gone astray.

1For great are thy judgments, and cannot be expressed: therefore unnurtured souls have erred.

Note"Your judgments" is addressed directly to God; the chapter opens in the middle of a long address that has been running for several chapters. The KJV's "unnurtured" and the rendering's "untaught" translate a Greek word for someone who has never been disciplined or trained, closer to "undisciplined" than to "uneducated."

2For when unrighteous men supposed that they held the holy nation in their power, they themselves became prisoners of darkness, chained with the bonds of a long night. Shut in under their own roofs, they lay there, exiled from the everlasting providence.

2For when unrighteous men thought to oppress the holy nation; they being shut up in their houses, the prisoners of darkness, and fettered with the bonds of a long night, lay there exiled from the eternal providence.

NoteThis chapter retells, without ever naming Egypt, the ninth plague of Exodus 10:21-23: three days of darkness over Egypt while the Israelites had light where they lived. The "unrighteous men" are the Egyptians, the "holy nation" is enslaved Israel. The Wisdom of Solomon was written in Greek, probably in Alexandria, and its closing chapters work through the Exodus story episode by episode without using names. "Providence" translates pronoia, a term from Greek philosophy for the forethought and ordering care by which the world is governed; to be "exiled" from it is to be cut off from that ordering, not carried off to another country.

3For while they thought their secret sins lay hidden, they were scattered apart under a dark veil of forgetting, struck with awful terror and badly shaken by strange shapes that appeared to them.

3For while they supposed to lie hid in their secret sins, they were scattered under a dark veil of forgetfulness, being horribly astonished, and troubled with strange apparitions.

NoteThe "dark veil of forgetfulness" pictures a curtain drawn between them, so that each was cut off from the others and from memory itself. "Apparitions" in the KJV means shapes seen that were not there; the word covers ghosts and hallucinations alike.

4The corner that held them could not keep fear away from them. Terrifying noises crashed and rang around them, and gloomy shapes appeared to them with grim faces.

4For neither might the corner that held them keep them from fear: but noises as of waters falling down sounded about them, and sad visions appeared unto them with heavy countenances.

NoteThe "corner" is the innermost recess at the back of a house, the place a person retreats to in order to hide. The point is that the deepest hiding place in the building gave no protection.

5No power of fire could give them light, and not even the bright flames of the stars were strong enough to light up that dreadful night.

5No power of the fire might give them light: neither could the bright flames of the stars endure to lighten that horrible night.

NoteExodus 10:21 calls this a darkness "which may be felt." What is described is not nightfall but a darkness that lamplight and starlight could not cut, so that fire went on burning without giving light.

6The only thing that appeared to them was a fire that had lit itself, and it was full of terror. In their fright they thought the things they saw were worse than the sight they could not see.

6Only there appeared unto them a fire kindled of itself, very dreadful: for being much terrified, they thought the things which they saw to be worse than the sight they saw not.

NoteA fire "kindled of itself" is one nobody lit, appearing on its own out of the dark. The last clause turns on a contrast: the little they could make out frightened them less than the far greater dark they could not see into.

7As for the tricks of their magic arts, those were brought to nothing, and their boasting about their wisdom was rebuked and put to shame.

7As for the illusions of art magick, they were put down, and their vaunting in wisdom was reproved with disgrace.

Note"Art magick" is simply the old word order for "magic arts." Egypt's magicians are recurring figures in Exodus: in the first contests with Moses they duplicate his signs, then fall behind, and finally cannot stand before him at all.

8For the very people who promised to drive terrors and troubles away from a sick soul were themselves sick with fear, and deserved to be laughed at.

8For they, that promised to drive away terrors and troubles from a sick soul, were sick themselves of fear, worthy to be laughed at.

NoteProfessional magicians advertised charms and spells that would drive nightmares, hauntings and terrors out of a troubled mind. The sting of the verse is that the specialists in curing fear were the ones lying helpless with it.

9For even when nothing frightening was there to scare them, they were still terrified by creatures passing by and by the hissing of snakes.

9For though no terrible thing did fear them; yet being scared with beasts that passed by, and hissing of serpents,

NoteThe Greek word is for small creeping things, vermin and crawling creatures, rather than large animals: ordinary household pests, heard and not seen.

10They died of fear, refusing even to look at the air, which cannot be escaped on any side.

10They died for fear, denying that they saw the air, which could of no side be avoided.

NoteThe KJV's "denying that they saw the air" is obscure. The Greek means they refused even to look at the air around them, since the darkness was in the air itself and there was no direction in which to turn away from it.

11For wickedness is a cowardly thing, condemned by the witness inside itself, and, pressed hard by conscience, it always predicts the worst.

11For wickedness, condemned by her own witness, is very timorous, and being pressed with conscience, always forecasteth grievous things.

Note"Timorous" in 1611 English means cowardly, easily frightened. "Conscience" translates syneidesis, literally a knowing-together-with-oneself, the inward witness that knows what a person has done; this is one of the earliest surviving passages where the word carries something close to its modern sense. "Forecasteth grievous things" means it keeps predicting disaster.

12For fear is nothing but the giving up of the help that reason offers.

12For fear is nothing else but a betraying of the succours which reason offereth.

Note"Succours" in 1611 English means relief troops, or aid sent to someone under attack, and the Greek behind "betraying" is the word for handing a position over to the enemy. The image is military: fear surrenders the reinforcements that reason was sending.

13And when the expectation within a person is weak, it counts the not knowing as a greater trouble than the cause that brings the torment.

13And the expectation from within, being less, counteth the ignorance more than the cause which bringeth the torment.

NoteThe Greek of this verse is damaged, and no two translations agree on how to construe it. The general sense is that when a person's inner resources run low, not knowing what is causing the torment feels worse than the cause itself would.

14But all through that night they slept the same sleep, a night that had no real power, and that came upon them out of the far depths of the powerless place of the dead.

14But they sleeping the same sleep that night, which was indeed intolerable, and which came upon them out of the bottoms of inevitable hell,

Note"The bottoms" means the innermost recesses. "Hell" here is the Greek Hades, the underworld where all the dead were thought to go; the word does not by itself mean a place of punishment. The manuscripts differ on one word: the KJV read it as "inevitable," while the reading followed in the rendering is "powerless," so the night is either one nobody could escape or one with no real power in it.

15At times they were tormented by monstrous shapes, and at times they collapsed, their courage giving way, for a sudden fear they had not expected came over them.

15Were partly vexed with monstrous apparitions, and partly fainted, their heart failing them: for a sudden fear, and not looked for, came upon them.

16So whoever fell down there was held fast, shut up in a prison that had no iron bars.

16So then whosoever there fell down was straitly kept, shut up in a prison without iron bars,

Note"Straitly kept" is old English for held tightly or closely. "Strait" means narrow, and has nothing to do with "straight."

17For whether he was a farmer, or a shepherd, or a worker whose labor was out in the wild country, he was overtaken, and had to bear that sentence which could not be escaped, for they were all bound with one chain of darkness.

17For whether he were husbandman, or shepherd, or a labourer in the field, he was overtaken, and endured that necessity, which could not be avoided: for they were all bound with one chain of darkness.

Note"Husbandman" in 1611 English means a farmer, someone who works the soil. The third figure is a laborer whose work took him out into open or wild country, away from any building. The three trades between them cover everyone who worked outdoors, so the point is that the darkness caught people wherever their work had taken them, with no shelter anywhere.

18Whether it was a whistling wind, or the tuneful sound of birds among the spreading branches, or the steady fall of water running hard,

18Whether it were a whistling wind, or a melodious noise of birds among the spreading branches, or a pleasing fall of water running violently,

19or the harsh crash of rocks thrown down, or the unseen running of animals bounding along, or the roaring voice of the wildest beasts, or an echo bouncing back from the hollows of the mountains, all these things made them faint with fear.

19Or a terrible sound of stones cast down, or a running that could not be seen of skipping beasts, or a roaring voice of most savage wild beasts, or a rebounding echo from the hollow mountains; these things made them to swoon for fear.

20For the whole world was shining with clear light, and no one was hindered in his work.

20For the whole world shined with clear light, and none were hindered in their labour:

NoteExodus 10:23 says the Egyptians could not see one another or rise from their places for three days, "but all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings." That is the contrast drawn here: everyone else going about the day's work in ordinary daylight.

21Over them alone was spread a heavy night, a picture of the darkness that was going to receive them afterward. But they were a heavier burden to themselves than the darkness was.

21Over them only was spread an heavy night, an image of that darkness which should afterward receive them: but yet were they unto themselves more grievous than the darkness.

Note"Image" here means a likeness or preview: the night was a foretaste of a darkness still ahead of them. The last clause plays on weight; the heavy night lay on them, but their own fear pressed down harder than the night did.