Then at once apparitions in dreadful dreams greatly troubled them, and unexpected fears assailed them: Good News Translation inserts “the people who were about to die” for the pronoun them. Something like this is necessary. Verses 17-19 describe their state of mind, and there is no other way of advising the reader who this new subject is. For dreadful dreams and unexpected fears, Contemporary English Version is helpful with “nightmares and terrifying dreams.” But we may also combine the two terms and translate the whole verse as follows:

• The ghostly figures in their nightmares [or, dreams] made the people who were about to die terribly afraid.

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.