³ that you ask, ^(A)‘What advantage have I?
    How am I better off than if I had sinned?’

⁹ For ^(A)he has said, ‘It profits a man nothing
    that he should take delight in God.’

¹³ All in vain have I ^(A)kept my heart clean
    and ^(B)washed my hands in innocence.

² What would be ^(A)my portion from God above
    and ^(B)my heritage from the Almighty on high?

^15 (A)What is the Almighty, that we should serve him?
    And what ^(B)profit do we get if we pray to him?’

^15 (A)If I am guilty, woe to me!
    If I am ^(B)in the right, I cannot lift up my head,
for I am filled with disgrace
    and ^(C)look on my affliction.

³⁰ If I wash myself with snow
    and ^(A)cleanse my hands with lye,
³¹ yet you will plunge me into a pit,
    and my own clothes will ^(B)abhor me.

²¹ I am ^(A)blameless; I regard not myself;
    I ^(B)loathe my life.
²² It is all one; therefore I say,
    ‘He ^(C)destroys both the blameless and the wicked.’