15. For though I were righteous, I would not answer Him. I pray to Him for my right-ruling.
16. Though I had called and He answered me, I would not believe that He was listening to my voice.
17. For He crushes me with a storm, and has multiplied my wounds for no cause.
18. He does not allow me to recover my breath, but fills me with bitterness.
19. If I speak of power? Look, He is mighty. And if of right-ruling? Who sets me a time?
20. If I am righteous? My mouth would declare me wrong. Am I perfect? It would declare me perverse.
21. Am I perfect? Do I not know my own being? I despise my life!
22. It is all the same, therefore I say, ‘He destroys the perfect and the wrong.’
23. If the scourge slays suddenly, He laughs at the trial of the innocent.
24. Earth has been given into the hand of the wrong. He covers the faces of its judges. If it is not He, then who is it?
25. My days have become swifter than a runner – they have fled, they have not seen good.
26. They have passed by like swift ships, like an eagle swooping on its prey.
27. If I say, ‘Let me forget my complaint, let me put off my sad face, and let me smile,’
28. I shall be afraid of all my sufferings. I know that You do not hold me innocent.
29. If I am wrong, why should I labour in vain?
30. If I washed myself with snow water, and cleansed my hands with soap,
31. then You would plunge me into a ditch, and my garments shall abhor me.
32. For He is not a man as I am that I answer Him, and we come together into right-ruling.