Key Verse Spotlight
Wisdom 17:6 - Meaning and Application
Understand how this verse speaks to what you're facing and how to apply it today
Translation: World English Bible — Catholic Edition
" but only the glimmering of a self-kindled fire appeared to them, full of fear. In terror, they considered the things which they saw to be worse than that sight, on which they could not gaze. "
Wisdom 17:6
Verse in Context
Understanding the surrounding verses prevents misinterpretation:
4 For neither did the dark recesses that held them guard them from fears, but terrifying sounds rang around them, and dismal phantoms appeared with unsmiling faces.
5 And no power of fire prevailed to give light, neither were the brightest flames of the stars strong enough to illuminate that gloomy night;
6 but only the glimmering of a self-kindled fire appeared to them, full of fear. In terror, they considered the things which they saw to be worse than that sight, on which they could not gaze.
7 The mockeries of their magic arts were powerless, now, and a shameful rebuke of their boasted understanding:
8 For those who promised to drive away terrors and disorders from a sick soul, these were sick with a ludicrous fearfulness.
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Wisdom 17:1
"For your judgments are great, and hard to interpret; therefore undisciplined souls went astray."
Wisdom 17:2
"For when lawless men had supposed that they held a holy nation in their power, they, prisoners of darkness, and bound in the fetters of a long night, kept close beneath their roofs, lay exiled from the eternal providence."
Wisdom 17:3
"For while they thought that they were unseen in their secret sins, they were divided from one another by a dark curtain of forgetfulness, stricken with terrible awe, and very troubled by apparitions."
Wisdom 17:4
"For neither did the dark recesses that held them guard them from fears, but terrifying sounds rang around them, and dismal phantoms appeared with unsmiling faces."
Wisdom 17:5
"And no power of fire prevailed to give light, neither were the brightest flames of the stars strong enough to illuminate that gloomy night;"
Wisdom 17:7
"The mockeries of their magic arts were powerless, now, and a shameful rebuke of their boasted understanding:"
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