14How then can I answer him, choosing my words with him?15Though I am innocent, I cannot answer him; I must appeal for mercy to my accuser.16If I summoned him and he answered me, I do not believe that he would listen to my voice.17For he crushes me with a tempest, and multiplies my wounds without cause;18he will not let me get my breath, but fills me with bitterness.19If it is a contest of strength, he is the strong one! If it is a matter of justice, who can summon him?20Though I am innocent, my own mouth would condemn me; though I am blameless, he would prove me perverse.21I am blameless; I do not know myself; I loathe my life.22It is all one; therefore I say, he destroys both the blameless and the wicked.23When disaster brings sudden death, he mocks at the calamity of the innocent.24The earth is given into the hand of the wicked; he covers the eyes of its judges— if it is not he, who then is it?