This verse should be compared with 2.2-5, where the ungodly rather calmly anticipate their own death as simply a disappearance from reality. They are right in one way—the memory of them will perish (compare 2.4)—but they are wrong if they think God has finished with them. Compare Ezek 31.16; 2Macc 3.29.

Because he will dash them speechless to the ground: The ungodly will experience death not as an extinction of consciousness, but as a violent encounter with God, who, before they can speak, hurls them into their grave (to the ground is literally “downward, headlong”).

Shake them from the foundations could mean “with such force that they are torn apart,” but more likely it refers to roughly uprooting them from their foundations in life—their homes, families, and wealth. An alternative model for the first two lines is “Before they can speak, God will rip [or, tear] them away from life and throw them to the ground [or, into their graves].”

They will be left utterly dry and barren is literally “and to the end they will be dried up,” which can mean “they will be completely dried up.” Possibly the author is thinking here of the practice of secondary burial, in which the body was buried in the ground, but after enough time had passed for all the flesh to decay, relatives would dig up the skeleton and place the bones in a stone container called an ossuary.

And they will suffer anguish may simply be rendered “and they will be in pain.” In other words, when the ungodly die, they will not be “at peace” (3.3) or “at rest” (4.7). It will not be as they said in 2.2-3.

And the memory of them will perish: This is just as the ungodly themselves said in 2.4. Good News Translation translates well: “People will soon forget all about them.”

An alternative model for this verse is:

• Before they can speak, God will rip them out of [or, tear them away from] life and throw them into their graves. There they will lie until the end of time, dry as dust. They will be in pain, but people will forget all about them.

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.