Lamentations 5
1 Remember, LORD, what has come on us. Look, and see our disgrace.
Remember, O Yahweh, what hath befallen us, Look around, and see our reproach:
2 Our inheritance is turned over to strangers, our houses to foreigners.
Our inheritance, turned over to foreigners, our houses, to aliens.
3 We are orphans and fatherless. Our mothers are like widows.
Orphans, have we become, and fatherless, our mothers, are widows indeed.
4 We have to pay for a drink of water; our wood is sold to us.
Our water—for silver, have we drunk, our wood—for a price, cometh in.
5 Our pursuers are on our necks; we are weary, and have no rest.
Upon our necks, are our pursuers, We labour, and there is allowed us no rest.
6 We have submitted to the Egyptians and to the Assyrians, to get enough bread.
To Egypt, have we stretched out our hand, to Assyria, to be satisfied with bread.
7 Our fathers sinned, and are no more; but we have borne their iniquities.
Our fathers, sinned, and are not, and, we, their iniquities, have borne.
8 Servants rule over us: There is none to deliver us out of their hand.
Slaves, have ruled over us, There is none to set free from their hand.
9 We get our bread at the peril of our lives, because of the sword in the wilderness.
At the risk of our life, do we bring in our bread, because of the sword of the desert.
10 Our skin is hot like an oven, because of the burning heat of famine.
Our skin, as with a furnace, is scorched, because of the hot winds of famine.
11 They raped the women in Zion, the virgins in the cities of Judah.
Women—in Zion, were ravished, virgins, in the cities of Judah!
12 Princes were hung by their hands; elders were shown no respect.
Princes, by their hand, have been hanged, The faces of elders, not honoured.
13 The young men grind at the mill; the boys stagger under loads of wood.
Young men, a millstone, have lifted, and, youths, under wood, have staggered.
14 The elders have gone from the gate, the young men from their music.
Elders, from the gates, have ceased. Young men, from their music.
15 The joy of our heart has ceased; our dancing is turned into mourning.
Ceased hath the joy of our hearts, Changed to mourning, our dance.
16 The crown is fallen from our head; woe to us, for we have sinned.
Fallen is the crown of our head. Surely woe to us, for we have sinned.
17 For this our heart is faint; for these things our eyes grow dim.
For this cause, faint is our heart, For these things, dimmed are our eyes:
18 For the mountain of Zion, which is desolate; the foxes walk on it.
Because of Mount Zion, which is desolate, jackals, have gone prowling therein.
19 But you, LORD, abide forever; your throne is from generation to generation.
Thou, O Yahweh, unto times age-abiding, dost remain, Thy throne, from generation to generation:
20 Why do you keep on forgetting us? Why do you forsake us so long?
Wherefore shouldst thou perpetually forget us? forsake us, to length of days?
21 Restore us to you, LORD, and we shall be restored; renew our days as in former times,
Bring us back, O Yahweh, unto thyself, and we will come back! Renew our days, as of old;
22 unless you have completely rejected us and are angry with us beyond measure.
For though thou hast not, utterly rejected, us, thou art wroth with us—exceedingly!
