Chapter 17

¹ For great are thy judgments, and cannot be expressed:

Wis 17:1

² For when unrighteous men thought to oppress the holy nation;

Wis 17:2

³ For while they supposed to lie hidden in their secret sins,

Wis 17:3

⁴ For neither might the corner that held them keep them from fear:

Wis 17:4

⁵ No power of the fire might give them light:

Wis 17:5

⁶ Only there appeared unto them

Wis 17:6

⁷ As for the illusions of art magic, they were put down,

Wis 17:7

⁸ For they, that promised to drive away terrors and troubles from a sick soul,

Wis 17:8

⁹ For though no terrible thing did fear them;

Wis 17:9

¹⁰ They died for fear,

Wis 17:10

¹¹ For wickedness, condemned by her own witness, is very timorous,

Wis 17:11

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

Wis 17:12

¹³ And the expectation from within, being less,

Wis 17:13

¹⁴ But they sleeping the same sleep that night,

Wis 17:14

¹⁵ Were partly vexed with monstrous apparitions,

Wis 17:15

¹⁶ So then whosoever there fell down was straitly kept,

Wis 17:16

¹⁷ For whether he were husbandman, or shepherd,

Wis 17:17

¹⁸ Whether it were a whistling wind,

Wis 17:18

¹⁹ Or a terrible sound of stones cast down,

Wis 17:19

²⁰ For the whole world shined with clear light,

Wis 17:20

²¹ Over them only was spread a heavy night,

Wis 17:21