We suggest a paragraph break at the end of this verse, rather than at the beginning as in Good News Translation.

For in secret the holy children of good men offered sacrifices: The connector For may be omitted. For this line Good News Translation is good, but may be slightly changed to read “During all this time good people from among your people were secretly offering sacrifices to you.” The reference is to the preparations for the first Passover in Exo 12.21-27.

And with one accord agreed to the divine law, that the saints would share alike the same things, both blessings and dangers: Good News Translation misunderstands the sense of divine law. The reference is not to “God’s law,” that is, the Law of Moses given on Mount Sinai, but to a sacred obligation they laid upon themselves. Compare New Jerusalem Bible “and with one accord this holy law: that the holy ones should share good things and dangers alike.” Saints here means “God’s own people.” Fashioning models after New Jerusalem Bible, we suggest “and with one accord they undertook a sacred obligation that they, as God’s holy people, would share alike in the successes and in the dangers that lay ahead,” “they made a binding promise with one another that they, as God’s own people, would share alike…,” and “and all of them agreed to follow a promise [or, obligation] that they had made with one another [or, had undertaken]; that is, that they as God’s own people….”

And already they were singing the praises of the fathers: Praises of the fathers surely refers to songs of praise sung by the ancestors, not to songs sung in praise of those ancestors, even though grammatically it could be taken either way here. Although nothing is said about songs in Exo 12, in the author’s day it had long been customary to sing Psa 113–118 at the observance of Passover. What he probably means here is that those ancient songs were first sung (the verb translated singing really means “to sing first”) on this occasion, the first Passover back in Egypt. (Compare the Passover observance in 2Chr 35.10-15, with singing implied in verse 15.) Something like this could be said for this line: “They were the first to sing those [or, the] ancient songs of praise to you.” At the risk of saying too much, and if Passover is a familiar enough concept for the audience, translators could even say “They were the first to sing our ancient Passover songs praising you.”

The Revised Standard Version footnote warns us of another textual reading for the last line. Although it is found in some good manuscripts, scholars usually reject it. We do not think a footnote is necessary here.

Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on The Wisdom of Solomon. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2004. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.