²¹ What will you say when He appoints
close friends as leaders over you,
ones you yourself trained?
Won’t labor pains seize you,^(A)
as they do a woman in labor?
²² And when you ask yourself,
“Why have these things happened to me?”
It is because of your great guilt^(B)
that your skirts have been stripped off,^(C)
your body exposed.^[a]
23 Can the Cushite change his skin,
or a leopard his spots?
If so, you might be able to do what is good,^(D)
you who are instructed in evil.