By day they encounter darkness and grope at noon as if it were night.
They grope in darkness with no light; He makes them stagger like a drunkard.
He will not escape from the darkness; a flame will wither his shoots, and he will depart by the breath of His mouth.
He is driven from light into darkness and is banished from the world.
Total darkness waits for his treasures; A fire not fanned will devour him; it will consume what is left in his tent.
or why it is so dark that you cannot see. and why a flood of water covers you.
These are those who rebel against the light, who do not recognize its ways or stay in its paths.
And from the wicked their light is withheld, and the upraised arm is broken.
Then Adonai said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward heaven, and there will be darkness over the land of Egypt—a darkness that may be felt.”
So Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven, and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt for three days.
The way of the wicked is like darkness. They do not know what makes them stumble.
We grope along the wall like the blind. We grope like those with no eyes. We stumble at noon as at twilight. We are like the dead in desolation.
“It will be in that day” —declares my Lord Adonai— “I will make the sun go down at noon, yes, I will darken the earth in daylight.
You will grope at noon as the blind person gropes in darkness, and you will not prosper in your ways. You will be only oppressed and robbed all the time, and there will be no one to save you.