The first sentence of this verse closes off the five sentences beginning with the Lord,
and in what follows in this verse, this closing sentence is further expanded upon. After all, the sojourner, the widow, and the fatherless are more often mentioned together as vulnerable people.
It is also telling, that exactly here, after these vulnerable people have been mentioned, God’s disciplining hand toward the wicked is mentioned. For the Lord cannot stand it that powerful people exploit the vulnerable and the weak. We read more often that the Lord becomes very angry about that. Literally it says that the Lord will make their ways crooked. They find themselves on a very uneven road—yes, one that even leads to a dead end.
9 The LORD watches over the sojourners; he upholds the widow and the fatherless, but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.