1 Great are Your judgments and hard to explain; Therefore, ignorant souls have gone astray.
2 For when law less men thought they exercised power Over Your holy nation, They them selves were prisoners of darkness and long night, Shut in under their roofs, exiles from eternal providence.
3 For when they thought they escaped notice With their secret sins behind a curtain of forgetfulness, They were scattered and in a terrible state of shock And thrown into confusion by apparitions.
4 For not even the inmost part of the house that held them Protected them from fear, But troubling noises sounded all around them, And gloomy apparitions with downcast faces appeared to them.
5 No force of fire had the strength to give them light, Nor did the very bright lights of the stars Tarry to illuminate that hateful night.
6 Now a self-acting fire full of fear alone shone through to them, But they were greatly terrified when that apparition was not perceived; So they considered the things they were seeing to be worse.
7 The delusions of their magic were ineffective, And so was the arrogant certainty of their pretense to have insight.
8 For those who promised to drive away The fears and troubles of a sick soul were them selves sick with an absurd timidity.
9 For even if nothing dreadful frightened them, Yet, scared by the passing of beasts and hissing of serpents, They perished full of fear, Even refusing to look at the air, which could not be avoided.
10 For evil is a cowardly thing, And condemned by its own witness; And tormented by conscience, It always welcomes things full of trouble.
11 For fear is nothing but the betrayal of the assistance that comes from reasoning;
12 And the expectation from within considers itself to be weaker than ignorance of the cause which supplies the torment.
13 But they slept the same sleep throughout the night, which was actually powerless, and which assaulted them from the inmost parts of a powerless hades.
14 They were driven by the monsters of apparitions and were paralyzed by the betrayal of their soul; for sudden and unexpected fear was poured out on them.
15 So then whoever was there fell down and thus was kept shut up in a prison not made of iron.
16 For whether someone was a farmer or a shepherd or a worker who labored in the wilderness, He was overtaken by force and endured inescapable punishment; For all were bound with one chain of darkness.
17 Whether there came a whistling wind, Or the musical sound of birds in wide-spreading branches, Or the motion of violently rushing water, Or the hard crash of rocks thrown down,
18 Or the unseen running of leaping animals, Or the roar of fierce wild animals, Or an echo reflected from the hollow of mountains, It paralyzed them with terror.
19 For the whole world was illumined with bright light And embraced unhindered works,
20 While over those men alone heavy night was spread, An image of darkness that was about to receive them; But they were heavier than darkness to them selves.