Lamentations 5
1 Remember, O LORD, what has happened to us. Look and see our disgrace!
Keep in mind, O Lord, what has come to us: take note and see our shame.
2 Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, our houses to foreigners.
Our heritage is given up to men of strange lands, our houses to those who are not our countrymen.
3 We have become fatherless orphans; our mothers are widows.
We are children without fathers, our mothers are like widows.
4 We must buy the water we drink; our wood comes at a price.
We give money for a drink of water, we get our wood for a price.
5 We are closely pursued; we are weary and find no rest.
Our attackers are on our necks: overcome with weariness, we have no rest.
6 We submitted to Egypt and Assyria to get enough bread.
We have given our hands to the Egyptians and to the Assyrians so that we might have enough bread.
7 Our fathers sinned and are no more, but we bear their punishment.
Our fathers were sinners and are dead; and the weight of their evil-doing is on us.
8 Slaves rule over us; there is no one to deliver us from their hands.
Servants are ruling over us, and there is no one to make us free from their hands.
9 We get our bread at the risk of our lives because of the sword in the wilderness.
We put our lives in danger to get our bread, because of the sword of the waste land.
10 Our skin is as hot as an oven with fever from our hunger.
Our skin is heated like an oven because of our burning heat from need of food.
11 Women have been ravished in Zion, virgins in the cities of Judah.
They took by force the women in Zion, the virgins in the towns of Judah.
12 Princes have been hung up by their hands; elders receive no respect.
Their hands put princes to death by hanging: the faces of old men were not honoured.
13 Young men toil at millstones; boys stagger under loads of wood.
The young men were crushing the grain, and the boys were falling under the wood.
14 The elders have left the city gate; the young men have stopped their music.
The old men are no longer seated in the doorway, and the music of the young men has come to an end.
15 Joy has left our hearts; our dancing has turned to mourning.
The joy of our hearts is ended; our dancing is changed into sorrow.
16 The crown has fallen from our head. Woe to us, for we have sinned!
The crown has been taken from our head: sorrow is ours, for we are sinners.
17 Because of this, our hearts are faint; because of these, our eyes grow dim—
Because of this our hearts are feeble; for these things our eyes are dark;
18 because of Mount Zion, which lies desolate, patrolled by foxes.
Because of the mountain of Zion which is a waste; jackals go over it.
19 You, O LORD, reign forever; Your throne endures from generation to generation.
You, O Lord, are seated as King for ever; the seat of your power is eternal.
20 Why have You forgotten us forever? Why have You forsaken us for so long?
Why have we gone from your memory for ever? why have you been turned away from us for so long?
21 Restore us to Yourself, O LORD, so we may return; renew our days as of old,
Make us come back to you, O Lord, and let us be turned; make our days new again as in the past.
22 unless You have utterly rejected us and remain angry with us beyond measure.
But you have quite given us up; you are full of wrath against us.
