Wisdom 17 - New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition 2021(NRSVUE)

Wisdom of Solomon 17Terror Strikes the Egyptians at Night

1 alarmed

and appalled by specters.

4

distressed by conscience, it has always exaggerated the difficulties.

12For fear is nothing but a giving up of the helps that come from reason,

13and hope, being weaker, prefers ignorance of what causes the torment.

14 Eccl 9.10 But throughout the night, which was really powerless

and which came upon them from the recesses of powerless Hades,

they all slept the same sleep

15 vv 3, 8 ; Mt 14.26; Lk 21.26and now were driven by monstrous specters

and now were paralyzed by their souls’ surrender,

for sudden and unexpected fear overwhelmed them.

16 Ex 10.23 And whoever was there fell down

and thus was kept shut up in a prison not made of iron;

17 Wis 18.4; 19.17 for whether they were farmers or shepherds

or workers who toiled in the wilderness,

they were seized and endured the inescapable fate,

for with one chain of darkness they all were bound.

18 Song of Thr 27 Whether there came a whistling wind,

or a melodious sound of birds in wide-spreading branches,

or the rhythm of violently rushing water,

19 Ps 53.5 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 v 17 ; Ex 10.23For the whole world was illumined with brilliant light

and went about its work unhindered,

21 Ex 10.22; Job 18.18; Mt 8.12; 2 Pet 2.17; Jude 13 while over those people 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.