For great are thy judgments, and hard to interpret;

2 For when lawless men had supposed that they held a holy nation in their power,

3 For while they thought that they were unseen in their secret sins,

4 For neither did the dark recesses that held them guard them from fears,

5 And no force of fire prevailed to give them light,

6 But only there appeared to them the glimmering of a fire self-kindled, full of fear;

7 And they lay helpless, made the sport of magic art,

8 For they that promised to drive away terrors and troublings from a sick soul,

9 For even if no troublous thing affrighted them,

10 They perished for very trembling,

11 For wickedness, condemned by a witness within, is a coward thing,

12 For fear is nothing else but a surrender of the succors which reason offereth;

13 And from within the heart the expectation of them being less

14 But they, all through the night which was powerless indeed,

15 Now were haunted by monstrous apparitions,

16 So then every man, whosoever it might be, sinking down in his place,

17 For whether he were a husbandman, or a shepherd,

18 Whether there were a whistling wind,

19 Or a harsh crashing of rocks hurled down,

20 For the whole world beside was enlightened with clear light,

21 While over them alone was spread a heavy night,