Lamentations 5

¹Remember, Lord, what has happened to us;

look, and see our disgrace.

²Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers,

our homes to foreigners.

³We have become fatherless,

our mothers are widows.

⁴We must buy the water we drink;

our wood can be had only at a price.

⁵Those who pursue us are at our heels;

we are weary and find no rest.

⁶We submitted to Egypt and Assyria

to get enough bread.

⁷Our ancestors sinned and are no more,

and we bear their punishment.

⁸Slaves rule over us,

and there is no one to free us from their hands.

⁹We get our bread at the risk of our lives

because of the sword in the desert.

¹⁰Our skin is hot as an oven,

feverish from hunger.

¹¹Women have been violated in Zion,

and virgins in the towns of Judah.

¹²Princes have been hung up by their hands;

elders are shown no respect.

¹³Young men toil at the millstones;

boys stagger under loads of wood.

¹⁴The elders are gone from the city gate;

the young men have stopped their music.

¹⁵Joy is gone from our hearts;

our dancing has turned to mourning.

¹⁶The crown has fallen from our head.

Woe to us, for we have sinned!

¹⁷Because of this our hearts are faint,

because of these things our eyes grow dim

¹⁸for Mount Zion, which lies desolate,

with jackals prowling over it.

¹⁹You, Lord, reign forever;

your throne endures from generation to generation.

²⁰Why do you always forget us?

Why do you forsake us so long?

²¹Restore us to yourself, Lord, that we may return;

renew our days as of old

²²unless you have utterly rejected us

and are angry with us beyond measure.