Wisdom of Solomon 17

1 Your judgments are great and difficult to explain; therefore undisciplined souls went astray. 2 Lawless people thought they could oppress a holy nation, but they became prisoners of darkness and captives of a long night. Shut beneath their roofs, they lay there as fugitives from your eternal provident care.

3 They thought their secret sins were hidden under a dark veil of forgetfulness, but they were scattered in terrible shock and disturbed by apparitions. 4 Not even the secluded place that held them kept them free from fear. Disturbing noises echoed around them, and grim apparitions appeared with joyless faces. 5 No force of fire was strong enough to give them light, nor could the brilliant flames of the stars illuminate that dreadful night. 6 Only a self-kindled fire appeared to them, full of terror. Frightened by that sight they could not clearly see, they thought the things they did see were even worse.

7 The tricks of magic collapsed, and their arrogant claim to discernment was humiliatingly exposed. 8 Those who promised to drive terrors and disturbances from a sick soul were themselves sick with ridiculous fear. 9 Even when nothing terrifying frightened them, the passing of animals and the hissing of serpents threw them into panic. 10 They died trembling with fear, refusing even to look at the air that could not be escaped.

11 Wickedness is cowardly when condemned by its own testimony. Pressed by conscience, it always imagines the worst. 12 Fear is nothing but the surrender of the help that reason provides. 13 When confidence from within is weak, it considers ignorance worse than the cause that brings the torment.

14 Throughout that truly powerless night, which came upon them from the recesses of powerless Hades, they all slept the same sleep. 15 Some were driven by monstrous apparitions, while others were paralyzed by the betrayal of their own souls, for sudden and unexpected fear poured over them.

16 So whoever fell there remained confined, locked inside a prison without iron bars. 17 Whether someone was a farmer, a shepherd, or a laborer working alone in the wilderness, he was overtaken and had to endure this unavoidable constraint, for everyone was bound by the same chain of darkness. 18 A whistling wind, the tuneful sound of birds among spreading branches, the rhythm of violently rushing water, or the harsh crash of falling rocks— 19 the unseen running of leaping animals, the roar of the fiercest wild beasts, or an echo rebounding from hollow mountains—any of these sounds paralyzed them with fear.

20 The whole world shone with brilliant light and continued its work unhindered. 21 Over them alone a heavy night was spread, an image of the darkness that was about to receive them. Yet they were a heavier burden to themselves than the darkness.