20“Though I am righteous, my mouth will condemn me;
         Though I am guiltless, He will declare me guilty.

21“I am guiltless;
         I do not take notice of myself;
         I despise my life.

22“It is all one; therefore I say,
         ‘He destroys the guiltless and the wicked.’

23“If the scourge kills suddenly,
         He mocks the despair of the innocent.

24“The earth is given into the hand of the wicked;
         He covers the faces of its judges.
         If it is not He, then who is it?

25“Now my days are swifter than a runner;
         They flee away, they see no good.

26“They slip by like reed boats,
         Like an eagle that swoops on its prey.

27“Though I say, ‘I will forget my complaint,
         I will leave off my sad countenance and be cheerful,’

28I am afraid of all my pains,
         I know that You will not acquit me.

29“I am accounted wicked,
         Why then should I toil in vain?

30“If I should wash myself with snow
         And cleanse my hands with lye,

31Yet You would plunge me into the pit,
         And my own clothes would abhor me.

32“For He is not a man as I am that I may answer Him,
         That we may go to court together.

33“There is no umpire between us,
         Who may lay his hand upon us both.

34“Let Him remove His rod from me,
         And let not dread of Him terrify me.

35“Then I would speak and not fear Him;
         But I am not like that in myself.

NASB ©1995