Lamentations 5
1 Remember, O Yhwh, what is come upon us: consider, and behold our reproach.
Remember, O LORD, what has happened to us. Look and see our disgrace!
2 Our inheritance is turned to strangers, our houses to aliens.
Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, our houses to foreigners.
3 We are orphans and fatherless, our mothers are as widows.
We have become fatherless orphans; our mothers are widows.
4 We have drunken our water for money; our wood is sold unto us.
We must buy the water we drink; our wood comes at a price.
5 Our necks are under persecution: we labour, and have no rest.
We are closely pursued; we are weary and find no rest.
6 We have given the hand to the Egyptians, and to the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread.
We submitted to Egypt and Assyria to get enough bread.
7 Our fathers have sinned, and are not; and we have borne their iniquities.
Our fathers sinned and are no more, but we bear their punishment.
8 Servants have ruled over us: there is none that doth deliver us out of their hand.
Slaves rule over us; there is no one to deliver us from their hands.
9 We gat our bread with the peril of our lives because of the sword of the wilderness.
We get our bread at the risk of our lives because of the sword in the wilderness.
10 Our skin was black like an oven because of the terrible famine.
Our skin is as hot as an oven with fever from our hunger.
11 They ravished the women in Zion, and the maids in the cities of Judah.
Women have been ravished in Zion, virgins in the cities of Judah.
12 Princes are hanged up by their hand: the faces of elders were not honoured.
Princes have been hung up by their hands; elders receive no respect.
13 They took the young men to grind, and the children fell under the wood.
Young men toil at millstones; boys stagger under loads of wood.
14 The elders have ceased from the gate, the young men from their musick.
The elders have left the city gate; the young men have stopped their music.
15 The joy of our heart is ceased; our dance is turned into mourning.
Joy has left our hearts; our dancing has turned to mourning.
16 The crown is fallen from our head: woe unto us, that we have sinned!
The crown has fallen from our head. Woe to us, for we have sinned!
17 For this our heart is faint; for these things our eyes are dim.
Because of this, our hearts are faint; because of these, our eyes grow dim—
18 Because of the mountain of Zion, which is desolate, the foxes walk upon it.
because of Mount Zion, which lies desolate, patrolled by foxes.
19 Thou, O Yhwh, remainest for ever; thy throne from generation to generation.
You, O LORD, reign forever; Your throne endures from generation to generation.
20 Wherefore dost thou forget us for ever, and forsake us so long time?
Why have You forgotten us forever? Why have You forsaken us for so long?
21 Turn thou us unto thee, O Yhwh, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old.
Restore us to Yourself, O LORD, so we may return; renew our days as of old,
22 But thou hast utterly rejected us; thou art very wroth against us.
unless You have utterly rejected us and remain angry with us beyond measure.
