Wisdom 17

NEW JERUSALEM	DOUAI-RHEIMS
1 Yes, your judgements are great and impenetrable, which is why uninstructed souls have gone astray.	1 For thy judgments, O Lord, are great, and thy words cannot be expressed: therefore undisciplined souls have erred.
2 While the wicked supposed they had a holy nation in their power, they themselves lay prisoners of thedark, in the fetters of long night, confined under their own roofs, banished from eternal providence.	2 For while the wicked thought to be able to have dominion over the holy nation, they themselves being fettered with the bonds of darkness, and a long night, shut up in their houses, lay there exiled from the eternal providence.
3 While they thought to remain unnoticed with their secret sins, curtained by dark forgetfulness, theywere scattered in fearful dismay, terrified by apparitions.	3 And while they thought to lie hid in their obscure sins, they were scattered under a dark veil of forgetfulness, being horribly afraid and troubled with exceeding great astonishment.
4 The hiding place sheltering them could not ward off their fear; terrifying noises echoed round them;and gloomy, grim-faced spectres haunted them.	4 For neither did the den that held them, keep them from fear: for noises coming down troubled them, and sad visions appearing to them, affrighted them.
5 No fire had power enough to give them light, nor could the brightly blazing stars il uminate that dreadfulnight.	5 And no power of fire could give them light, neither could the bright flames of the stars enlighten that horrible night.
6 The only light for them was a great, spontaneous blaze -- a fearful sight to see! And in their terror,once that sight had vanished, they thought what they had seen more terrible than ever.	6 But there appeared to them a sudden fire, very dreadful: and being struck with the fear of that face, which was not seen, they thought the things which they saw to be worse:
7 Their magical il usions were powerless now, and their claims to intel igence were ignominiouslyconfounded;	7 And the delusions of their magic art were put down, and their boasting of wisdom was reproachfully rebuked.
8 for those who promised to drive out fears and disorders from sick souls were now themselves sick withludicrous fright.	8 For they who promised to drive away fears and troubles from a sick soul, were sick themselves of a fear worthy to be laughed at.
9 Even when there was nothing frightful to scare them, the vermin creeping past and the hissing ofreptiles filled them with panic;	9 For though no terrible thing disturbed them: yet being scared with the passing by of beasts, and hissing of serpents, they died for fear: and denying that they saw the air, which could by no means be avoided.
10 they died convulsed with fright, refusing even to look at empty air, which cannot be eluded anyhow!	10 For whereas wickedness is fearful, it beareth witness of its condemnation: for a troubled conscience always forecasteth grievous things.
11 Wickedness is confessedly very cowardly, and it condemns itself; under pressure from conscience italways assumes the worst.	11 For fear is nothing else but a yielding up of the succours from thought.
12 Fear, indeed, is nothing other than the failure of the help offered by reason;	12 And while there is less expectation from within, the greater doth it count the ignorance of that cause which bringeth the torment.
13 the less you rely within yourself on this, the more alarming it is not to know the cause of yoursuffering.	13 But they that during that night, in which nothing could be done, and which came upon them from the lowest and deepest hell, slept the same sleep.
14 And they, al locked in the same sleep, while that darkness lasted -- which was in fact quite powerlessand had issued from the depths of equal y powerless Hades-	14 Were sometimes molested with the fear of monsters, sometimes fainted away, their soul failing them: for a sudden and unlooked for fear was come upon them.
15 were now chased by monstrous spectres, now paralysed by the fainting of their souls; for a sudden,unexpected terror had attacked them.	15 Moreover if any of them had fallen down, he was kept shut up in prison without irons.
16 And thus, whoever it might be that fel there stayed clamped to the spot in this prison without bars.	16 For if any one were a husbandman, or a shepherd, or a labourer in the field, and was suddenly overtaken, he endured a necessity from which he could not fly.
17 Whether he was ploughman or shepherd, or somebody at work in the desert, he was stil overtakenand suffered the inevitable fate, for al had been bound by the one same chain of darkness.	17 For they were all bound together with one chain of darkness. Whether it were a whistling wind, or the melodious voice of birds, among the spreading branches of trees, or a fall of water running down with violence,
18 The soughing of the wind, the tuneful noise of birds in the spreading branches, the measured beat ofwater in its powerful course, the headlong din of rocks cascading down,	18 Or the mighty noise of stones tumbling down, or the running that could not be seen of beasts playing together, or the roaring voice of wild beasts, or a rebounding echo from the highest mountains: these things made them to swoon for fear.
19 the unseen course of bounding animals, the roaring of the most savage of wild beasts, the echorebounding from the clefts in the mountains, all held them paralysed with fear.	19 For the whole world was enlightened with a clear light, and none were hindered in their labours.
20 For the whole world shone with the light of day and, unhindered, went about its work;	20 But over them only was spread a heavy night, an image of that darkness which was to come upon them. But they were to themselves more grievous than the darkness.
21 over them alone there spread a heavy darkness, image of the dark that would receive them. Butheavier than the darkness was the burden they were to themselves.