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Wisdom of Solomon 17
Septuagint (LXX2012) compared with World English Bible
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Septuagint (LXX2012)
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1For great are your judgments , and can’t be expressed: therefore unnurtured souls have erred.
1For your judgments are great, and hard to interpret; therefore undisciplined souls went astray.
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.
2For when lawless men had supposed that they held a holy nation in their power, they, prisoners of darkness, and bound in the fetters of a long night, kept close beneath their roofs, lay exiled from the eternal providence.
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.
3For while they thought that they were unseen in their secret sins, they were divided from one another by a dark curtain of forgetfulness, stricken with terrible awe, and very troubled by apparitions.
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 to them with heavy countenances.
4For neither did the dark recesses that held them guard them from fears, but terrifying sounds rang around them, and dismal phantoms appeared with unsmiling faces.
5No power of the fire might give them light: neither could the bright flames of the stars endure to lighten that horrible night.
5And no power of fire prevailed to give light, neither were the brightest flames of the stars strong enough to illuminate that gloomy night;
6Only there appeared to them a fire kindled of itself, very dreadful: for being much terrified, they thought the things which they saw to be worse than the sightthey saw not .
6but only the glimmering of a self-kindled fire appeared to them, full of fear. In terror, they considered the things which they saw to be worse than that sight, on which they could not gaze.
7As for the illusions of are magick, they were put down, and their vaunting in wisdom was reproved with disgrace.
7The mockeries of their magic arts were powerless, now, and a shameful rebuke of their boasted understanding:
8For they, that promised to drive away terrors and troubles from a sick soul, were sick themselves of fear, worthy to be laughed at.
8For those who promised to drive away terrors and disorders from a sick soul, these were sick with a ludicrous fearfulness.
9For though no terrible thing did fear them; yet being scared with beasts that passed by, and hissing of serpents,
9For even if no troubling thing frighted them, yet, scared with the creeping of vermin and hissing of serpents,
10They died for fear, denying that they saw the air, which could of no side be avoided.
10they perished trembling in fear, refusing even to look at the air, which could not be escaped on any side.
11For wickedness, condemned by her own witness , is very timorous, andbeing pressed with conscience, always forecasts grievous things.
11For wickedness, condemned by a witness within, is a coward thing, and, being pressed hard by conscience, always has added forecasts of the worst.
12For fear is nothing else but a betraying of the help which reason offers.
12For fear is nothing else but a surrender of the help which reason offers;
13And the expectation from within, being less, counts the ignorance more than the cause which brings the torment.
13and from within, the expectation of being less prefers ignorance of the cause that brings the torment.
14But they sleeping the same sleep that night, which was indeed intolerable, and which came upon them out of the bottoms of inevitable hell,
14But they, all through the night which was powerless indeed, and which came upon them out of the recesses of powerless Hades, sleeping the same sleep,
15Were partly vexed with monstrous apparitions, and partly fainted, their heart failing them: for a sudden fear, and not looked for, came upon them.
15now were haunted by monstrous apparitions, and now were paralyzed by their soul’s surrendering; for sudden and unexpected fear came upon them.
16So then whoever there fell down was straitly kept , shut up in a prison without iron bars,
16So then whoever it might be, sinking down in his place, was kept captive, shut up in that prison which was not barred with iron;
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.
17for whether he was a farmer, or a shepherd, or a laborer whose toils were in the wilderness, he was overtaken, and endured that inescapable sentence; for they were all bound with one chain of darkness.
18Whether it were a whistling wind, or a melodious noise of birds among the spreading branches, or a pleasing fall of water running violently,
18Whether there was a whistling wind, or a melodious sound of birds among the spreading branches, or a measured fall of water running violently,
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.
19or a harsh crashing of rocks hurled down, or the swift course of animals bounding along unseen, or the voice of wild beasts harshly roaring, or an echo rebounding from the hollows of the mountains, all these things paralyzed them with terror.
20For the whole world shined with clear light, and none were hindered in their labor:
20For the whole world was illuminated with clear light, and was occupied with unhindered works,
21Over them only was spread an heavy night, an image of that darkness which should afterward receive them: but yet were they to themselves more grievous than the darkness.
21while over them alone was spread a heavy night, an image of the darkness that should afterward receive them; but to themselves, they were heavier than darkness.