Lamentations 5
1 Remember, O Lord, what has befallen us. Consider and look kindly upon 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 foreigners; our houses to outsiders.
Our heritage is given up to men of strange lands, our houses to those who are not our countrymen.
3 We have become orphans without a father; our mothers are like widows.
We are children without fathers, our mothers are like widows.
4 We paid for our drinking water. We acquired our wood for a price.
We give money for a drink of water, we get our wood for a price.
5 We were dragged by our necks. Being weary, no rest was given to us.
Our attackers are on our necks: overcome with weariness, we have no rest.
6 We have given our hand to Egypt and to the Assyrians, so that we may be satisfied with bread.
We have given our hands to the Egyptians and to the Assyrians so that we might have enough bread.
7 Our fathers have sinned, and are not. And we have carried their iniquities.
Our fathers were sinners and are dead; and the weight of their evil-doing is on us.
8 Servants have become rulers over us. There was no one to redeem us from their hand.
Servants are ruling over us, and there is no one to make us free from their hands.
9 We obtained our bread at the risk of our lives, before the face 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 was burned, as if by an oven, before the face of the tempest of the famine.
Our skin is heated like an oven because of our burning heat from need of food.
11 They humiliated the women in Zion and the virgins in the cities of Judah.
They took by force the women in Zion, the virgins in the towns of Judah.
12 The leaders were suspended by their hand. They were not ashamed before the faces of the elders.
Their hands put princes to death by hanging: the faces of old men were not honoured.
13 They have sexually abused the adolescents, and the children were corrupted in the wood.
The young men were crushing the grain, and the boys were falling under the wood.
14 The elders have ceased from the gates, the youths from the choir of the psalms.
The old men are no longer seated in the doorway, and the music of the young men has come to an end.
15 The gladness of our heart has failed, our singing has been turned into 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 heart became gloomy; for this reason, our eyes have been darkened:
Because of this our hearts are feeble; for these things our eyes are dark;
18 because of mount Zion, because it was ruined. Foxes have wandered upon it.
Because of the mountain of Zion which is a waste; jackals go over it.
19 But you, O Lord, shall remain for eternity, your throne from generation to generation.
You, O Lord, are seated as King for ever; the seat of your power is eternal.
20 Why would you forget us forever? Why would you forsake us for a long time?
Why have we gone from your memory for ever? why have you been turned away from us for so long?
21 Convert us, O Lord, to you, and we shall be converted. Renew our days, as from the beginning.
Make us come back to you, O Lord, and let us be turned; make our days new again as in the past.
22 But you have utterly rejected us; you are vehemently angry against us.
But you have quite given us up; you are full of wrath against us.
