And the inner expectation of help, being weak, prefers ignorance of what causes the torment: Some serious ambiguities, especially in the second line, result in translations that go in different directions; for example:

Reider “For the all too feeble expectation of help from within counts the ignorance as worse than the cause that brings the torment” (similarly Winston).
New American Bible “and the more one’s expectation is of itself uncertain, the more one makes of not knowing the cause that brings on torment” (similarly New Jerusalem Bible).
Traduction œcuménique de la Bible “The less reliance one puts on [the aid of reason], the more one feels ignorant of what causes the torment” (with this alternative in a footnote: “The less close attention one pays to what is going to happen…”).
New English Bible “and hope, defeated by this inward weakness, capitulates before ignorance of the cause by which the torment comes” (similarly Good News Translation).

Any of these translations can be justified from the Greek text, which does not present unusual problems in itself. Of these approaches we recommend that of New English Bible, and would offer the following models based on it:

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.