And not only so, but punishment of some sort will come upon the former for their hostile reception of the aliens: The first line of this verse is exceptionally difficult, and no confident conclusions can be reached as to its meaning. Basically, there are two problems. One is textual; there is more than one way in which the letters of the Greek text can be divided into words. We could as well translate punishment of some sort as “another punishment,” that is, an additional punishment. A second problem is the meaning of the word translated by Revised Standard Version as punishment. It is the word “visitation” or “divine intervention”; see the note on 2.20. This word can often have a positive sense, as it does in 2.20; 3.7, 9; 4.15. In this book the word has a clear negative import only in 14.11. If the word is positive here (so Reider, Goodrick, and most clearly, An American Translation), the writer is making an “allowance” (Goodrick) for the men of Sodom that he is unwilling to make for the Egyptians. When God examines souls (see the use of the word “visitation” in 3.13), there may be hope for the men of Sodom. This would be because either (a) they were openly hostile to the strangers from the beginning, and did not turn on those whom they had earlier befriended, or (b) because the strangers involved really were strangers, whereas the Hebrews were well known to the Egyptians. If the word “visitation” is to be taken in a negative sense (so almost all others), the writer is thinking of a final punishment for Sodom that is still to come, in addition to the destruction of the city in Genesis. Our own feeling is that the word should be considered positively here.

We offer three approaches, and the translator may choose any of the three. We arrange them in order of our own preference.

• There is more. Those men long ago [or, many years ago] may yet deserve some consideration [from God]; at least they were hostile to the strangers from the beginning [or, the time they arrived].

• More than that, God may yet be kinder to those men long ago; at least the people they were hostile to [or, they abused] were complete strangers.

• Also, those men long ago still have not received their full punishment [or, been fully punished] for not welcoming the strangers.

Any of these approaches should appropriately have a footnote, such as “The text and meaning of this verse are unclear.”

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.