Chapter Seventeen

Third comparison: 1–20. The terrible frightening night over Egypt – XVIII:1–4, and light over Israel.

Chapter XVII and the first four verses of Chapter XVIII contain the third parallel between the Egyptians and the Israelites. The Egyptians were punished with three days of darkness (Exod 10 from verse 21); this time was for them unbroken horror; on the contrary, the Hebrews even at this time had the greatest light shining for them and subsequently they never suffered from darkness: the light-bearing pillar illuminated and showed them the way.

Wisdom 17:1. Great and incomprehensible are Your judgments, therefore uninstructed souls went astray. 1. “…Your judgments…” Divine determinations, the way and manner of action in the human world. (Compare Ps 118:75; Rom 11:33). “…uninstructed souls…” Those who do not have correct knowledge of God and His relations to the world; most immediately here are meant the Egyptians. The thought of the verse is that one must have true revealed knowledge of God so as not to go astray regarding the ways of Divine providence in the human world.

Wisdom 17:2. For the lawless, who devised to oppress the holy people, being prisoners of darkness and captives of a long night, shut in their houses, hid themselves from eternal Providence. 2. It is defined in what the error of the Egyptians consisted. First in the fact that they “devised to oppress the holy people,” and then, when they were overtaken by the terrible “plague” – three days of darkness (Exod 10:21-23) – and they were as it were “captives of a long night,” they did not wish to recognize in this event the action of God and to submit to His will, but tried to escape from the almighty hand of God in their houses: “shut in their houses, hid themselves from eternal Providence.”

Wisdom 17:3. Thinking to hide in secret sins, they, under the dark covering of forgetfulness, were scattered, greatly frightened and troubled by phantoms, 3. This verse contains irony about the Egyptians. The latter even by the punishment of God sent upon them in darkness wanted to make use of for covering their secret sins. (See Job 24:15-16; Isa 29:15). But these calculations did not succeed. The unbroken night hindered even dark deeds: they “were scattered, greatly frightened by phantoms.”

Wisdom 17:4. for even the hidden place that contained them did not protect them from fear, but terrible sounds around them caused them confusion, and fierce monsters with dreadful faces appeared. 4. The fear experienced by the Egyptians during the three-day darkness sent upon them is described. From this fear did not protect “even the hidden place” that contained them. By this hidden place some understand the deep underground corridors in Egypt or rooms deeply dug inside the pyramids. But in verse 2 it was said that the Egyptians “shut in their houses,” and accordingly here “hidden place” should better be understood as the inner rooms of houses. “…terrible sounds around them caused them confusion, and fierce monsters with dreadful faces appeared.” Does the author here speak of objective objects that brought terror to the Egyptians, or does he mean images of imagination created under the influence of fear? Later in verse 6 he calls one of the objects frightening the Egyptians an “invisible phantom,” and then expresses more generally that the Egyptians “were troubled by terrible phantoms” (verse 14). Nowhere is it evident that the author considered these phantoms as any objective objects, for example, as demons or as spirits of the dead coming out of hell, which taking the forms of “fierce monsters with dreadful faces” (verse 4), “themselves burning pyres full of horror” (verse 6), would appear to frighten people. On the contrary, he says that the Egyptians came into extreme fear “although no terrors actually troubled them” (verse 9). The cause of fear, according to the author’s thought, is not external but internal, in the soul’s condition of the Egyptians; these horrors were “suffered by the soul” (verse 8), their “wickedness condemned by its own testimony devised horrors” (verse 10). Thus the horrors were “devised,” they are a result of imagination acting under the influence of the pangs of conscience. Reality, of course, provided rich material for this imagination and the author speaks of this in detail in verses 17–18.

Wisdom 17:5. And no power of fire could illuminate, nor could the bright gleam of the stars illuminate this dark night. 5. A similar remark about this darkness, that it was vainly attempted to illuminate with fire, is found in Philo, Vita Mos. II vol. 100.

Wisdom 17:6. Appeared to them only themselves burning pyres, full of horror, and they, fearing the invisible – phantom, imagined the visible even worse. 6. One of the phantoms frightening the Egyptians created by their imagination is pointed out: these are “themselves burning pyres, full of horror”; pyres burning by themselves and burning without any material supporting the fire. What exactly was horrible about these pyres, from the brevity of the account is not clear; perhaps these pyres were images of punishment which “wickedness condemned by its own testimony” devised.

Wisdom 17:7. The deceptions of sorcery fell, and the boasting of wisdom underwent ridicule, Wisdom 17:8. for those who promised to drive away fears from the suffering soul were themselves suffering shameful cowardice. 7–8. The Egyptian sorcerers, as is known from the Book of Exodus, tried to oppose Moses with his own weapon, attempted to perform the same signs and wonders that he performed. In imitation of him to some extent in the first two “plagues,” they were then forced to acknowledge their powerlessness (Exod 9:11). According to the Book of Wisdom of Solomon the representatives of “sorcery and wisdom” of Egypt struggled against Moses much longer. They “promised to drive away fears” even from the 9th plague, and only shameful cowardice that seized them subjected them to ridicule.

Wisdom 17:9. And though no terrors actually troubled them, yet pursued by the stirring of poisonous beasts and the hissing of creeping things, they would faint from fear, even afraid to look at the air from which there is no escape, 9. The extreme degree of fear that seized the Egyptians is depicted: “they would faint from fear, afraid even to look at the air.” Meanwhile there was no objective cause for fear: “no terrors actually troubled them.” Indescribable fear was caused by the most trivial objects: the cry or hiss of animals, the noise of their movement.

Wisdom 17:10. for wickedness condemned by its own testimony is fearful and, pursued by conscience, always devises horrors. 10. In the preceding verse the author expressed the thought of the apparent causelessness of the Egyptians’ fear, that there were no actually terrible objects without. This impels him now to point out the true cause of fear (verse 10) and at the same time to define what fear is in its essence (verses 11 and 12). The cause of fear, in the author’s opinion, lies in conscience, which pursued the Egyptians for their wickedness. Condemned by the testimony of conscience, “wickedness is fearful and devises horrors.” Psychologically the indicated explanation of the origin of fear is very accurate. Verse 10 is important in that in it the word “conscience,” συνείδησις, is used in its completely exact meaning with indication of the true functions of this side of the human spirit (compare Rom 2:15).

Wisdom 17:11. Fear is nothing other than a deprivation of the help that comes from reason. 11. The definition given here of fear is, of course, incomplete. It notes only one side. Its meaning is such: fear deprives a person of composure, so that he cannot direct his attention to the object of fear in order to either convince himself of its insignificance or find means to eliminate it.

Wisdom 17:12. The less hope is within, the more the unknown cause appears that produces torment. 12. This verse contains an explanation of verse 11. The thought is as follows: in despair people usually exaggerate their helplessness; objects exciting fear seem to them more dangerous than they actually are. They become confused, cannot focus their thought, and the unknown nature of what terrifies them grows for them.

Wisdom 17:13. And they in this truly unbearable and from the depths of insupportable hell-issued night, arranging to fall asleep with their usual sleep, Wisdom 17:14. were at times troubled by terrible phantoms, at times weakened by spiritual despair, for sudden and unexpected fear found them. 13–18. In these verses the thought expressed in verses 10–12 is applied to the Egyptians. The fear that seized them was by itself powerless to harm them, but fear deprived the Egyptians of rational thought, so that even the most trivial objects, the most insignificant phenomena brought them into terror. “…from the depths of insupportable hell-issued night…” Hell in Scripture is represented as a dark and gloomy place (Job 10:21-22; Ps 48:20), therefore the author considers the extraordinarily dark and prolonged night that covered Egypt as coming forth from hell. In this explanation of the origin of the night the author diverges from Philo, who explained the origin of the unusually prolonged night either by a solar eclipse or by a thickening of clouds (Vita Mos. vol. II, 100). To hell the predicate αδύνατος, “impotent” (in the Russian text “insupportable”), is applied, probably because the inhabitants of hell are bodiless and impotent shadows of the dead. The origin of the night from impotent hell gives the thought that the fear of the Egyptians was aroused by something by its origin insignificant. The cause of fear lay within, in the despair that seized their souls, under the influence of which their disturbed imagination created “terrible signs.”

Wisdom 17:15. Therefore whoever was overtaken then became a prisoner and was confined to this prison without bonds. 15. The comparison of Egyptians enveloped in darkness with prisoners in a dungeon is very natural. Like prisoners, the Egyptians in the darkness were deprived of freedom of movement, freedom of activity. The author used this comparison earlier as well (verse 2).

Wisdom 17:16. Whether one was a farmer or a shepherd or one engaged in work in the wilderness, each, being overtaken, was subject to this unavoidable fate, 16. The meaning of the verse is as follows: those who by the nature of their work usually returned from day work in large groups could not escape the horrors of the night: shepherds, field workers.

Wisdom 17:17. for all were bound by one inescapable chain of darkness. Whether it was the whistling wind, or among thick branches the melodious voice of birds, or the force of swiftly flowing water, or the loud crash of falling rocks, Wisdom 17:18. or the unseen running of leaping animals, or the voice of roaring fiercest beasts, or the echoing from mountain recesses, all this, terrifying them, brought them to weakness. 17–18. These verses contain a poetic description of how every trifling sound struck fear into the Egyptians and brought them to despair. The whistle of wind, the voices of birds, the sound of water, the crash of a mountain collapse, loud echoes in mountains – in a word, all of nature was for them a source of indescribable fear.

Wisdom 17:19. For the whole world was illuminated by clear light and busied itself with its usual works; Wisdom 17:20. but over them alone was spread a heavy night, the image of the darkness that was to embrace them; but they themselves were more grievous to themselves than the darkness. 19–20. From the concluding verses of Chapter XVII it is evident that the terrible Egyptian night described above was not an ordinary dark night: it spread only over Egypt, while the rest of the “whole world was illuminated by clear light and busied itself with its usual works.” Undoubtedly the author was speaking of the punishment of the Egyptians by three days of darkness (Exod 10:21-23). This heavy night was the image of “the darkness that was to embrace them.” The mention of future darkness cannot be understood as an image of the heavy tormenting state of the Egyptians after death; in such a sense this word is often used in the New Testament (Matt 8:12). The author allowed, so to speak, the physical existence of hell (verse 14), which he represented as enveloped in impenetrable darkness. Therefore “the darkness that was to embrace them” is the actual darkness of hell, in which the souls of the dead wicked dwell. However, as terrible as the darkness of the Egyptian night was, the main source of horror lay not in it, but in the internal spiritual state that the Egyptians experienced: “they themselves were more grievous to themselves than the darkness.”