Septuagint Bible w/ Apocrypha LXX
New Revised Standard w/ Apocrypha NRSA
1 For great are thy judgments, and cannot be expressed: therefore unnurtured souls have erred.
1
Great are your judgments and hard to describe; therefore uninstructed souls have gone astray.
2 For when unrighteous men thought to oppress the holy nation; they being shut up in their houses, the prisoners of darkness, and fettered with the bonds of a long night, lay exiled from the eternal providence.
2
For when lawless people supposed that they held the holy nation in their power, they themselves lay as captives of darkness and prisoners of long night, shut in under their roofs, exiles from eternal providence.
3 For while they supposed to lie hid in their secret sins, they were scattered under a dark veil of forgetfulness, being horribly astonished, and troubled with apparitions.
3
For thinking that in their secret sins they were unobserved behind a dark curtain of forgetfulness, they were scattered, terribly alarmed, and appalled by specters.
4 For neither might the corner that held them keep them from fear: but noises falling down sounded about them, and sad visions appeared unto them with heavy countenances.
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For not even the inner chamber that held them protected them from fear, but terrifying sounds rang out around them, and dismal phantoms with gloomy faces appeared.
5 No power of the fire might give them light: neither could the bright flames of the stars endure to lighten that horrible night.
5
And no power of fire was able to give light, nor did the brilliant flames of the stars avail to illumine that hateful night.
6 Only there appeared unto them a fire kindled of itself, very dreadful: for being much terrified, they thought the things which they saw to be worse than the sight they saw not.
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Nothing was shining through to them except a dreadful, self-kindled fire, and in terror they deemed the things that they saw to be worse than that unseen appearance.
7 As for the illusions of art magick, they were put down, and their vaunting in wisdom was reproved with disgrace.
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The delusions of their magic art lay humbled, and their boasted wisdom was scornfully rebuked.
8 For they, that promised to drive away terrors and troubles from a sick soul, were sick themselves of fear, worthy to be laughed at.
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For those who promised to drive off the fears and disorders of a sick soul were sick themselves with ridiculous fear.
9 For though no terrible thing did fear them; yet being scared with beasts that passed by, and hissing of serpents,
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For even if nothing disturbing frightened them, yet, scared by the passing of wild animals and the hissing of snakes
10 They died for fear, denying that they saw the air, which could of no side be avoided.
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they perished in trembling fear, refusing to look even at the air, though it nowhere could be avoided.
11 For wickedness, condemned by her own witness, is very timorous, and being pressed with conscience, always forecasteth grievous things.
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For wickedness is a cowardly thing, condemned by its own testimony; distressed by conscience, it has always exaggerated the difficulties.
12 For fear is nothing else but a betraying of the succours which reason offereth.
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For fear is nothing but a giving up of the helps that come from reason;
13 And the expectation from within, being less, counteth the ignorance more than the cause which bringeth the torment.
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and hope, defeated by this inward weakness, prefers ignorance of what causes the torment.
14 But they sleeping the same sleep that night, which was indeed intolerable, and which came upon them out of the bottoms of inevitable hell,
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But throughout the night, which was really powerless and which came upon them from the recesses of powerless Hades, they all slept the same sleep,
15 Were partly vexed with monstrous apparitions, and partly fainted, their heart failing them: for a sudden fear, and not looked for, came upon them.
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and now were driven by monstrous specters, and now were paralyzed by their souls' surrender; for sudden and unexpected fear overwhelmed them.
16 So then whosoever there fell down was straitly kept, shut up in a prison without iron bars,
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And whoever was there fell down, and thus was kept shut up in a prison not made of iron;
17 For whether he were husbandman, or shepherd, or a labourer in the field, he was overtaken, and endured that necessity, which could not be avoided: for they were all bound with one chain of darkness.
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for whether they were farmers or shepherds or workers who toiled in the wilderness, they were seized, and endured the inescapable fate; for with one chain of darkness they all were bound.
18 Whether it were a whistling wind, or a melodious noise of birds among the spreading branches, or a pleasing fall of water running violently,
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Whether there came a whistling wind, or a melodious sound of birds in wide-spreading branches, or the rhythm of violently rushing water,
19 Or a terrible sound of stones cast down, or a running that could not be seen of skipping beasts, or a roaring voice of most savage wild beasts, or a rebounding echo from the hollow mountains; these things made them to swoon for fear.
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or the harsh crash of rocks hurled down, or the unseen running of leaping animals, or the sound of the most savage roaring beasts, or an echo thrown back from a hollow of the mountains, it paralyzed them with terror.
20 For the whole world shined with clear light, and none were hindered in their labour:
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For the whole world was illumined with brilliant light, and went about its work unhindered,
21 Over them only was spread an heavy night, an image of that darkness which should afterward receive them: but yet were they unto themselves more grievous than the darkness.
21
while over those people alone heavy night was spread, an image of the darkness that was destined to receive them; but still heavier than darkness were they to themselves.
The Brenton translation of the Septuagint is in the public domain.
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.