⁷ Even when I cry out, ‘Violence!’ I am not answered;
    I call aloud, but there is no justice.^(A)

² O Lord, how long shall I cry for help,
    and you will not listen?
Or cry to you “Violence!”
    and you will not save?^(A)
3 Why do you make me see wrongdoing
    and look at trouble?
Destruction and violence are before me;
    strife and contention arise.^(B)

⁸ though I call and cry for help,
    he shuts out my prayer;^(A)

²⁰ I cry to you, and you do not answer me;
    I stand, and you merely look at me.^(A)

⁸ For whenever I speak, I must cry out;
    I must shout, “Violence and destruction!”
For the word of the Lord has become for me
    a reproach and derision all day long.^(A)

² O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer;
    and by night but find no rest.^(A)

⁸ Will you even put me in the wrong?
    Will you condemn me that you may be justified?^(A)

⁵ For Job has said, ‘I am innocent,
    and God has taken away my right;

³⁵ O that I had one to hear me!
    (Here is my signature! Let the Almighty^[a] answer me!)
    O that I had the indictment written by my adversary!^(A)
36 Surely I would carry it on my shoulder;
    I would bind it on me like a crown;

³ Oh, that I knew where I might find him,
    that I might come even to his dwelling!^(A)
4 I would lay my case before him
    and fill my mouth with arguments.^(B)
5 I would learn what he would answer me
    and understand what he would say to me.
⁶ Would he contend with me in the greatness of his power?
    No, but he would give heed to me.
⁷ There the upright could reason with him,
    and I should be acquitted forever by my judge.^(C)