---
title: "Wisdom 17 – Catholic Bible (CPDV) & Latin Vulgate · Bless"
url: https://blessbible.app/bible/wisdom/17/
description: "The Egyptian darkness. Wisdom 17 in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin Vulgate."
---

# Wisdom 17

Wisdom 17 is chapter 17 of 19 in the Book of Wisdom. Here are all 20 verses in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin of the Clementine Vulgate beside them.

> The Egyptian darkness.
>
> — Bp. Richard Challoner, chapter summary

## Wisdom 17 (Catholic Public Domain Version)

1. For your judgments, O Lord, are great, and your words are indescribable. Therefore, undisciplined souls have wandered astray.
2. For, while they managed to convince the unjust, so as to obtain dominion over the holy nation, they themselves were fettered with chains of darkness and of endless night, enclosed in their houses, fugitives of everlasting providence, lying in ruins.
3. And, while they thought to escape notice in their secret sins, they were scattered under a dark veil of oblivion, being horribly afraid, and having been disturbed with great astonishment.
4. For neither did the cave which enclosed them preserve them from fear, because descending noises disturbed them, and the sorrowful persons appearing to them intensified their fear.
5. And, indeed, even fire had no strength to provide them light, nor could the clear flames of the stars illuminate that horrible night.
6. Yet there appeared to them a sudden fire, filled with fear; and, having been struck with the fear of that face which is unseen, they considered those things which they did see to be worse,
7. and, having been ridiculed, the illusions were removed from their arts along with their contemptuous rebuke of glorious wisdom.
8. Indeed, those who promised to drive away fears and disturbances from a languishing soul, though they were filled with derision, were themselves languishing in fear.
9. And, even if nothing unnatural disturbed them, yet being agitated by the passing of animals and the hissing of snakes, they died of fear, denying what they themselves saw even in the air, which no one thinks to be able to escape.
10. For, while there may be apprehension with wickedness, it gives testimony to condemnation, for a troubled conscience always forecasts harshness.
11. For fear is nothing else but unfaithfulness to thinking helpful things.
12. And, while expectation is driven from within, the cause of this is supposing that one is great in knowledge, and as a result, conflict excels.
13. Yet those who were truly powerless that night, being overcome by both the vilest and the deepest hell, were sleeping the same sleep,
14. sometimes stirred up by the fear of unnatural things, other times sinking down in disgrace of soul, for a sudden and unexpected fear overcame them.
15. Then, if any among them had fallen away, he was kept in a prison without bars which had been left open.
16. For if a farmer, or a shepherd, or a worker in a field of labor were suddenly overcome, he endured an inescapable necessity.
17. For they were all bound together with one chain of darkness. Or if there were a whistling wind, or the sweet sound of birds among the thick tree branches, or the force of water rushing excessively,
18. or the strong noise of rocks crashing down, or the scattering of playful animals having been seen, or the strong voice of bellowing beasts, or the resounding of the highest mountain echo, these things made them sink down because of fear.
19. For the whole world was enlightened with a clear light, and none were being hindered in their labors.
20. But then, the heavy night was placed over the sun for them, an image of that darkness which was about to overcome them. Yet they were more grievous to themselves than was the darkness.

## Wisdom 17 in Latin (Clementine Vulgate, 1592)

1. Magna sunt enim judicia tua, Domine, et inenarrabilia verba tua: propter hoc indisciplinatæ animæ erraverunt.
2. Dum enim persuasum habent iniqui posse dominari nationi sanctæ, vinculis tenebrarum et longæ noctis compediti, inclusi sub tectis, fugitivi perpetuæ providentiæ jacuerunt.
3. Et dum putant se latere in obscuris peccatis, tenebroso oblivionis velamento dispersi sunt, paventes horrende, et cum admiratione nimia perturbati.
4. Neque enim quæ continebat illos spelunca sine timore custodiebat, quoniam sonitus descendens perturbabat illos, et personæ tristes illis apparentes pavorem illis præstabant.
5. Et ignis quidem nulla vis poterat illis lumen præbere, nec siderum limpidæ flammæ illuminare poterant illam noctem horrendam.
6. Apparebat autem illis subitaneus ignis, timore plenus; et timore perculsi illius quæ non videbatur faciei, æstimabant deteriora esse quæ videbantur.
7. Et magicæ artis appositi erant derisus, et sapientiæ gloriæ correptio cum contumelia.
8. Illi enim qui promittebant timores et perturbationes expellere se ab anima languente, hi cum derisu pleni timore languebant.
9. Nam etsi nihil illos ex monstris perturbabat, transitu animalium et serpentium sibilatione commoti, tremebundi peribant, et aërem quem nulla ratione quis effugere posset, negantes se videre.
10. Cum sit enim timida nequitia, dat testimonium condemnationis: semper enim præsumit sæva, perturbata conscientia:
11. nihil enim est timor nisi proditio cogitationis auxiliorum.
12. Et dum ab intus minor est exspectatio, majorem computat inscientiam ejus causæ, de qua tormentum præstat.
13. Illi autem qui impotentem vere noctem, et ab infimis et ab altissimis inferis supervenientem, eumdem somnum dormientes,
14. aliquando monstrorum exagitabantur timore, aliquando animæ deficiebant traductione: subitaneus enim illis et insperatus timor supervenerat.
15. Deinde si quisquam ex illis decidisset, custodiebatur in carcere sine ferro reclusus.
16. Si enim rusticus quis erat, aut pastor, aut agri laborum operarius præoccupatus esset, ineffugibilem sustinebat necessitatem;
17. una enim catena tenebrarum omnes erant colligati. Sive spiritus sibilans, aut inter spissos arborum ramos avium sonus suavis, aut vis aquæ decurrentis nimium,
18. aut sonus validus præcipitatarum petrarum, aut ludentium animalium cursus invisus, aut mugientium valida bestiarum vox, aut resonans de altissimis montibus echo: deficientes faciebant illos præ timore.
19. Omnis enim orbis terrarum limpido illuminabatur lumine, et non impeditis operibus continebatur.
20. Solis autem illis superposita erat gravis nox, imago tenebrarum quæ superventura illis erat: ipsi ergo sibi erant graviores tenebris.

Source: Catholic Public Domain Version (Ronald L. Conte Jr., 2009), public domain; Latin: Clementine Vulgate (1592).