For even if nothing disturbing frightened them: Again the connector For may be omitted. Nothing disturbing means “nothing that should actually disturb a sensible person.” For this line Good News Translation has “Even though nothing dangerous had actually happened.”

Yet, scared by the passing of beasts and the hissing of serpents: The animals and snakes are products of the peoples’ own imaginations. In their terror they imagined they heard snakes around them in the darkness, and thought they could hear wild animals coming for them. The word for beasts used here is the one used in 11.15 and 16.1, where Revised Standard Version has “animals”; see the notes there. It probably does not refer to large animals such as lions or bears, but to the same scurrying, loathsome vermin meant in those passages. For serpents see 11.15. In this context it refers to snakes. In Greek the main verb of this sentence does not come until the next line, but Good News Translation does well to translate this line as a main clause.

The verse could be translated as follows:

• Even though nothing dangerous was actually happening, they were terrified. They could hear snakes hissing, and repulsive creatures scurrying all around them.

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.