even at noon they grope in darkness.

they grope in the dark and stagger like drunkards.

Strike them with blindness! Make their backs always weak!

Pour out your anger on them; let your indignation overtake them.

and we grope about like blind people. We stumble at noon, as if it were night, as if we were in the dark world of the dead.

We are sick at our very hearts and can hardly see through our tears,

The LORD says, "I will bring such disasters on the human race that everyone will grope about like someone blind. They have sinned against me, and now their blood will be poured out like water, and their dead bodies will lie rotting on the ground."

What then? The people of Israel did not find what they were looking for. It was only the small group that God chose who found it; the rest grew deaf to God's call.

And David says, "May they be caught and trapped at their feasts; may they fall, may they be punished!

For if the gospel we preach is hidden, it is hidden only from those who are being lost.

They do not believe, because their minds have been kept in the dark by the evil god of this world. He keeps them from seeing the light shining on them, the light that comes from the Good News about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God.

The Israelites were subject to Eglon for eighteen years.

So the LORD let them be conquered by Jabin, a Canaanite king who ruled in the city of Hazor. The commander of his army was Sisera, who lived at Harosheth-of-the-Gentiles.

Jabin had nine hundred iron chariots, and he ruled the people of Israel with cruelty and violence for twenty years. Then the people of Israel cried out to the LORD for help.

Once again the people of Israel sinned against the LORD, so he let the people of Midian rule them for seven years.

Whenever the Israelites would plant their crops, the Midianites would come with the Amalekites and the desert tribes and attack them.

They would come with their livestock and tents, as thick as locusts. They and their camels were too many to count. They came and devastated the land,

For eighteen years they oppressed and persecuted all the Israelites who lived in Amorite country east of the Jordan River in Gilead.

The Israelites sinned against the LORD again, and he let the Philistines rule them for forty years.

The Philistines assembled to fight the Israelites; they had thirty thousand war chariots, six thousand cavalry troops, and as many soldiers as there are grains of sand on the seashore. They went to Michmash, east of Bethaven, and camped there.

others crossed the Jordan River into the territories of Gad and Gilead. Saul was still at Gilgal, and the people with him were trembling with fear.

There were no blacksmiths in Israel because the Philistines were determined to keep the Hebrews from making swords and spears.

the charge was one small coin for sharpening axes and for fixing goads, and two coins for sharpening plows or hoes.)

"But your people rebelled and disobeyed you; they turned their backs on your Law. They killed the prophets who warned them, who told them to turn back to you. They insulted you time after time,

When peace returned, they sinned again, and again you let their enemies conquer them. Yet when they repented and asked you to save them, in heaven you heard, and time after time you rescued them in your great mercy.

So the LORD was angry with his people; he was disgusted with them.

They were oppressed by their enemies and were in complete subjection to them.

Our rulers are no better than slaves, and no one can save us from their power.

Go along with them and join them in the ceremony of purification and pay their expenses; then they will be able to shave their heads. In this way everyone will know that there is no truth in any of the things that they have been told about you, but that you yourself live in accordance with the Law of Moses.