³ Think how you have instructed many,^(A)
    how you have strengthened feeble hands.^(B)
4 Your words have supported those who stumbled;^(C)
    you have strengthened faltering knees.^(D)
5 But now trouble comes to you, and you are discouraged;^(E)
    it strikes^(F) you, and you are dismayed.^(G)
6 Should not your piety be your confidence^(H)
    and your blameless^(I) ways your hope?

¹⁶ Even if I summoned him and he responded,
    I do not believe he would give me a hearing.^(A)
17 He would crush me^(B) with a storm^(C)
    and multiply^(D) my wounds for no reason.^(E)
18 He would not let me catch my breath
    but would overwhelm me with misery.^(F)
19 If it is a matter of strength, he is mighty!^(G)
    And if it is a matter of justice, who can challenge him^[a]?^(H)
20 Even if I were innocent, my mouth would condemn me;
    if I were blameless, it would pronounce me guilty.^(I)

²¹ “Although I am blameless,^(J)
    I have no concern for myself;^(K)
    I despise my own life.^(L)
22 It is all the same; that is why I say,
    ‘He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.’^(M)
23 When a scourge^(N) brings sudden death,
    he mocks the despair of the innocent.^(O)

¹⁵ That is why I am terrified before him;^(A)
    when I think of all this, I fear him.^(B)
16 God has made my heart faint;^(C)
    the Almighty^(D) has terrified me.^(E)
17 Yet I am not silenced by the darkness,^(F)
    by the thick darkness that covers my face.

²⁰ “I cry out to you,^(A) God, but you do not answer;^(B)
    I stand up, but you merely look at me.

²¹ You turn on me ruthlessly;^(A)
    with the might of your hand^(B) you attack me.^(C)