8. though you were a powerful man, owning land –an honoured man, living on it.
9. And you sent widows away empty-handedand broke the strength of the fatherless.
10. That is why snares are all around you,why sudden peril terrifies you,
11. why it is so dark that you cannot see,and why a flood of water covers you.
12. ‘Is not God in the heights of heaven?And see how lofty are the highest stars!
13. Yet you say, “What does God know?Does he judge through such darkness?
14. Thick clouds veil him, so he does not see usas he goes about in the vaulted heavens.”
15. Will you keep to the old paththat the wicked have trod?
16. They were carried off before their time,their foundations washed away by a flood.
17. They said to God, “Leave us alone!What can the Almighty do to us?”
18. Yet it was he who filled their houses with good things,so I stand aloof from the plans of the wicked.
19. The righteous see their ruin and rejoice;the innocent mock them, saying,