1
Great are thy judgments and hard to describe; therefore unintructed souls have gone astray.
2
For when lawless men supposed that they held the holy nation in their power, they themselves lay as captives of darkness and prisoners of long night, shut in under their roofs, exiles from eternal providence.
3
For thinking that in their secret sins they were unobserved behind a dark curtain of forgetfulness, they were scattered, terribly alarmed, and appalled by specters.
4
For not even the inner chamber that held them protected them from fear, but terrifying sounds rang out around them, and dismal phantoms with gloomy faces appeared.
5
And no power of fire was able to give light, nor did the brilliant flames of the stars avail to illumine that hateful night.
6
Nothing was shining through to them except a dreadful, self-kindled fire, and in terror they deemed the things which they saw to be worse than that unseen appearance.
7
The delusions of their magic art lay humbled, and their boasted wisdom was scornfully rebuked.
8
For those who promised to drive off the fears and disorders of a sick soul were sick themselves with ridiculous fear.
9
For even if nothing disturbing frightened them, yet, scared by the passing of beasts and the hissing of serpents,