Job 9:15–24

15  rThough I am in the right, I cannot answer him;

I must sappeal for mercy to my accuser.1

16  If I summoned him and he answered me,

I would not believe that he was listening to my voice.

17  For he crushes me with a tempest

and multiplies my wounds twithout cause;

18  he will not let me get my breath,

but fills me with bitterness.

19  If it is a contest of ustrength, behold, he is mighty!

If it is a matter of justice, who can vsummon him?2

20  Though I am in the right, wmy own mouth would condemn me;

though I am blameless, he would prove me perverse.

21  I am xblameless; I regard not myself;

I yloathe my life.

22  It is all one; therefore I say,

‘He zdestroys both the blameless and the wicked.’

23  When adisaster brings sudden death,

he mocks at the calamity3 of the innocent.

24  bThe earth is given into the hand of the wicked;

he ccovers the faces of its judges—

dif it is not he, who then is it?