27If I say, ‘I will forget my complaint,

I will change my expression, and smile,’

28I still dread all my sufferings,

for I know you will not hold me innocent.

29Since I am already found guilty,

why should I struggle in vain?

30Even if I washed myself with soap^b

and my hands with washing soda,

31you would plunge me into a slime pit

so that even my clothes would detest me.

32“He is not a man like me that I might answer him,

that we might confront each other in court.

33If only there were someone to arbitrate between us,

to lay his hand upon us both,

34someone to remove God’s rod from me,

so that his terror would frighten me no more.

35Then I would speak up without fear of him,

but as it now stands with me, I cannot.