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Chapter 17

Darkness and the Luminous Cloud[a]

Great are your judgments and difficult to expound;
    for this reason obtuse souls were led into error.
For when the wicked believed that they held your holy nation in their power,
    they themselves became prisoners of darkness, shackled by the endless night,
    confined under their own roofs, banished from eternal providence.

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Footnotes

  1. Wisdom 17:1 The author embellishes the data of the biblical account (Ex 10:20-23), utilizing legends and rabbinic speculations to evoke the anguish of those without hope in the face of a hostile nature. In this way, the ninth plaque of Egypt becomes a symbol signifying everything that arouses consternation and terror in the human heart, above all, the inner night and the prison of a bad conscience in which the slightest things bring fear. Those who are steeped in darkness oppose themselves to the Wisdom of God that lit up Israel’s journey by a luminous cloud (Ex 13:21-22; 14:24) and by a spiritual light.