[All]: The st. is rather cryptic, but the sense seems to be that those who trust in their own power (rather than in God’s, cf. st. 17) come to grief, even though they intend to do good. The implication of hugðuz gótt eitt gera (l. 3) could be, as given here, ‘thought to do, i.e. intended to do only good’, or ‘thought they were doing only good’.