Great are thy judgments and hard to describe: It is helpful to remind the reader that God is being addressed, especially at the beginning of a new section; Good News Translation inserts “O Lord.” Good News Translation “acts of judgment” makes clear that the author is not speaking of decisions so much as actions resulting from decisions. It is among these marvelous acts of judgment of God that the author places the plague of darkness. In the Greek of Exo 6.6, God’s rescue of the Israelites from Egypt is described as a “great judgment” (Revised Standard Version “great acts of judgment”; Good News Translation “terrible punishment”). Hard to describe (Good News Translation “hard to explain”) means that human beings can no more describe or interpret God’s justice than they can describe God himself. Alternative models for this line are “O Lord, it is hard to explain the way you terribly punish people” and “O Lord, humans find it hard to explain the way….”

Therefore uninstructed souls have gone astray: Souls is a figure of speech for “people.” The meaning of this line is not clear. If the people involved are the Egyptians, did they go astray because they worshiped idols (Vílchez), or does it mean that they “lost their way in their effort to persecute” the Israelites (Reider)? Our suggestion is that the Greek aorist tense here be interpreted as an observation about what is always true. In this case the people involved are not the Egyptians in particular. The author is making an opening statement about why it is that people lose their way; the experience of the Egyptians is his extended illustration. The line may thus be translated as a present: “That is why people who have never been taught [about God’s justice] go astray [or, have followed the wrong path].”

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.