Terror Strikes the Egyptians at Night
1 O Lord, your acts of judgment are marvelous and hard to explain; that is why people who had not been taught about them went astray. 2 When lawless people imagined that they had your holy nation in their power, they were themselves imprisoned in a long night of darkness. They lay in their own houses, shut off from your eternal care. 3 They thought that their sins had been secret and unnoticed, shielded from view by a dark curtain of forgetfulness, but now they were horribly afraid, confused, and terrified by ghostly forms. 4 Not even the dark corners where they lay could protect them from fear. They were surrounded by horrible noises; grim ghosts with gloomy faces appeared before their eyes. 5 No fire had power to give them light, and the brilliant stars could do nothing to relieve that deathly darkness. 6 There was only a dreadful fire, lit by no human hand, that shone on them, and in their terror they believed that the real world was even worse than the things they imagined. 7 The illusions produced by their magic tricks were put to shame, and all the wisdom they had boasted of came to nothing. 8 They had claimed they could drive away all the fears and illnesses of sick minds, but now they themselves were sick with silly, groundless fears. 9 Even though nothing dangerous had actually happened, they were terrified by hissing snakes and animals advancing on them. 10 And so they died, shaking with fear, afraid even to open their eyes, yet unable to keep them shut.
11 Wickedness is cowardly in itself and stands self-condemned. Someone with a guilty conscience will always imagine things to be worse than they really are. 12 Fear is nothing but the failure to use the help that reason gives. 13 When you lack the confidence to rely on reason, you give in to the fears caused by ignorance.
14 All night long those people slept the same restless sleep, even though the night held no power over them, since it came from the powerless depths of the world of the dead. 15 They were chased by hideous forms and lay paralyzed as they surrendered themselves to the sudden, unexpected fear that came over them. 16 People would suddenly collapse and lie locked in the chains of their own fear. 17 Farmers, shepherds, and laborers out in the countryside were captured by the same inevitable fate and bound in the darkness by the same invisible chain. 18-19 They were panic-stricken by the sighing of the wind or by the singing of birds in the trees or by the roar of rushing water or by the rumble of falling rock or by the sound of unseen creatures running about or by the savage roaring of wild animals or by the echoes from the mountains. 20 In the full light of day, the rest of the world went about its business undisturbed. 21 Only those people were covered by this heavy night, a foretaste of the darkness of death that was waiting for them. They were a burden to themselves that was even heavier than the darkness.
1 For great are thy judgments, and cannot be expressed: therefore unnurtured souls have erred.
2 For when unrighteous men thought to oppress the holy nation; they being shut up in their houses, the prisoners of darkness, and fettered with the bonds of a long night, lay there exiled from the eternal providence.
3 For while they supposed to lie hid in their secret sins, they were scattered under a dark veil of forgetfulness, being horribly astonished, and troubled with strange apparitions.
4 For neither might the corner that held them keep them from fear: but noises as of waters falling down sounded about them, and sad visions appeared unto them with heavy countenances.
5 No power of the fire might give them light: neither could the bright flames of the stars endure to lighten that horrible night.
6 Only there appeared unto them a fire kindled of itself, very dreadful: for being much terrified, they thought the things which they saw to be worse than the sight they saw not.
7 As for the illusions of art magick, they were put down, and their vaunting in wisdom was reproved with disgrace.
8 For they, that promised to drive away terrors and troubles from a sick soul, were sick themselves of fear, worthy to be laughed at.
9 For though no terrible thing did fear them; yet being scared with beasts that passed by, and hissing of serpents,
10 They died for fear, denying that they saw the air, which could of no side be avoided.
11 For wickedness, condemned by her own witness, is very timorous, and being pressed with conscience, always forecasteth grievous things.
12 For fear is nothing else but a betraying of the succours which reason offereth.
13 And the expectation from within, being less, counteth the ignorance more than the cause which bringeth the torment.
14 But they sleeping the same sleep that night, which was indeed intolerable, and which came upon them out of the bottoms of inevitable hell,
15 Were partly vexed with monstrous apparitions, and partly fainted, their heart failing them: for a sudden fear, and not looked for, came upon them.
16 So then whosoever there fell down was straitly kept, shut up in a prison without iron bars,
17 For whether he were husbandman, or shepherd, or a labourer in the field, he was overtaken, and endured that necessity, which could not be avoided: for they were all bound with one chain of darkness.
18 Whether it were a whistling wind, or a melodious noise of birds among the spreading branches, or a pleasing fall of water running violently,
19 Or a terrible sound of stones cast down, or a running that could not be seen of skipping beasts, or a roaring voice of most savage wild beasts, or a rebounding echo from the hollow mountains; these things made them to swoon for fear.
20 For the whole world shined with clear light, and none were hindered in their labour:
21 Over them only was spread an heavy night, an image of that darkness which should afterward receive them: but yet were they unto themselves more grievous than the darkness.