20. If I’m innocent, my mouth condemns me;I have integrity; but God declares me perverse.
21. I’m blameless, yet don’t know myself;I reject my life.
22. It’s all the same;therefore, I say God destroys the blameless and the sinners.
23. If calamity suddenly kills,he mocks at the slaying of innocents.
24. The earth is handed over to the wicked;he covers the faces of its judges.If not God, then who does?
25. My days are swifter than a runner;they flee and don’t experience good.
26. They sweep by like ships made of reeds,as an eagle swoops on prey.
27. If I say, "I’ll forget my lament,put on a different face so I can smile,"
28. I’m still afraid of all my suffering;I know that you won’t declare me innocent.
29. I myself am thought guilty;why have I tried so hard in vain?
30. If I wash myself with snow,purify my hands with soap,
31. then you’ll hurl me into a slimy pitso that my clothes detest me.
32. God is not a man like me—someone I could answer—so that we could come together in court.