1
For great are Your Judgments, and difficult to explain. Therefore beings without discipline wandered astray.
2
For when the wicked thought to oppress the holy nation, they themselves, prisoners of darkness and bound by a long night, were shut beneath their roofs, fugitives from everlasting providence.
3
For while they supposed that they were hidden in their secret sins beneath the dark covering of forgetfulness, they were scattered in terrible fear and terrified by apparitions.
4
For not even the chamber that held them could protect them from fear. But sounds falling around them terrified them, and gloomy forms with sorrowful faces appeared.
5
No power of fire was strong enough to give light, nor could the bright flames of the stars endure to illuminate that dreadful night.
6
There appeared to them only a fire kindled by itself, full of terror. And being struck with fear, they considered the things they saw even worse than what was actually before them.
7
The illusions of their magic arts were cast down, and their boasting in wisdom was put to shame.
8
For those who promised to drive away fears and disturbances from a sick being were themselves sick with ridiculous fear.
9
For even if nothing terrifying disturbed them, they were frightened by the passing of beasts and the hissing of serpents.
10
They perished trembling, refusing even to look upon the air, which cannot be escaped from any side.
11
For wickedness, being cowardly, condemns itself by its own testimony, and being pressed by conscience, always expects severe things.
12
For fear is nothing else than the surrender of the help that comes from reasoning.
13
And the expectation within, being weaker, counts ignorance greater than the cause that brings torment.
14
But they, through that night— which was truly powerless and came upon them from the depths of powerless Sheol— sleeping the same sleep,
15
were sometimes pursued by monstrous apparitions, and sometimes paralyzed through the surrender of their being. For sudden and unexpected fear fell upon them.
16
So whoever fell there was guarded, shut inside a prison without iron.
17
For whether an ish was a farmer, or a shepherd, or a worker laboring in the wilderness, he was overtaken and endured the unavoidable necessity. For they were all bound by one chain of darkness.
18
Whether it was a whistling wind, or the melodious sound of birds among spreading branches, or the measured rhythm of rushing water,
19
or the harsh sound of stones being cast down, or the unseen running of leaping beasts, or the roaring voice of the fiercest creatures, or an echo resounding from hollow mountains— all these things paralyzed them with fear.
20
For the whole world was illuminated with radiant light and went about its works without hindrance.
21
But over them alone was spread a heavy night, an image of the darkness that was afterward to receive them. Yet they were more burdensome to themselves than the darkness.