For though they had disbelieved everything because of their magic arts: Again the connector For may be omitted. The Greek word translated magic arts is the same as the word rendered “sorcery” in 12.4; see the note there. This line may be rendered “These people had put their confidence in nothing except [or, only] magic [or, magicians].”

Yet, when their first-born were destroyed, they acknowledged thy people to be God’s son: On Israel as God’s son, see Exo 4.22-23. Translators should not name Israel (as Good News Translation does), since this would violate the author’s practice of not using proper names. However, in English, saying “your people are God’s son” or “… God’s child” is not natural even though not wrong. Some translators may find that in their language, this is no problem; they should follow Revised Standard Version. For the rest of us, Revised English Bible has an imaginative way out of the problem by rendering the last half of this line as follows: “they acknowledged that your people have God as their Father.” Still another approach, which may be the simplest, is Contemporary English Version “they realized that we were the children of God.” Neither of these alternatives is completely satisfying. God is not really called “Father” here; and turning son into “children” destroys the collective image of Israel as God’s son, as in Exo 4.22-23; compare Hos 11.1. Again, the best approach is to say “your people are God’s son” as in Revised Standard Version, if that is not impossibly awkward. If that fails, we would prefer the Contemporary English Version model.

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.