8. Although you were a powerful man, owning land,an honored man living on it,
9. you sent widows away empty-handed,and the arms of the orphans you crushed.
10. That is why snares surround you,and why sudden fear terrifies you,
11. why it is so dark you cannot see,and why a flood of water covers you.
12. “Is not God on high in heaven?And see the lofty stars, how high they are!
13. But you have said, ‘What does God know?Does he judge through such deep darkness?
14. Thick clouds are a veil for him, so he does not see us,as he goes back and forthin the vault of heaven.’
15. Will you keep to the old paththat evil men have walked –
16. men who were carried off before their time,when the flood was poured out on their foundations?
17. They were saying to God, ‘Turn away from us,’and ‘What can the Almighty do to us?’