Whom, though I were righteous, [yet] would I not answer, [but] I would make supplication to my judge.
Ver. 15. Whom though I were righteous] Legally righteous, as none ever were, but the first and second Adam.
Yet would I not answer] viz. By pleading mine own righteousness, since no created righteousness can answer God. Some render it, non attollam vocem, ne hiscere quidem audebo, I will not lift up my voice, nor dare to mute against him. see 1Co 4:4 No, though I were never so innocent, and did suffer this misery undeservedly.
But I would make supplication to my judge] As he doth, though it were a good while first, in the end of the next chapter. It is likely that he intended to do it sooner, but was put by by his passions; which, when they fume up into the head, gather oft into so thick a cloud, that we lose the sight of ourselves, and what is best to be done. Jonah thought to have prayed, John 4:1,2, but it proved a brawl; and when as by prayer he thought to overcome his anger, anger overcame him and his prayer too.