Lamentations 5

1 Remember, LORD, what has come on us. Look, and see our disgrace.

2 Our inheritance is turned over to strangers, our houses to foreigners.

3 We are orphans and fatherless. Our mothers are like widows.

4 We have to pay for a drink of water; our wood is sold to us.

5 Our pursuers are on our necks; we are weary, and have no rest.

6 We have submitted to the Egyptians and to the Assyrians, to get enough bread.

7 Our fathers sinned, and are no more; but we have borne their iniquities.

8 Servants rule over us: There is none to deliver us out of their hand.

9 We get our bread at the peril of our lives, because of the sword in the wilderness.

10 Our skin is hot like an oven, because of the burning heat of famine.

11 They raped the women in Zion, the virgins in the cities of Judah.

12 Princes were hung by their hands; elders were shown no respect.

13 The young men grind at the mill; the boys stagger under loads of wood.

14 The elders have gone from the gate, the young men from their music.

15 The joy of our heart has ceased; our dancing is turned into mourning.

16 The crown is fallen from our head; woe to us, for we have sinned.

17 For this our heart is faint; for these things our eyes grow dim.

18 For the mountain of Zion, which is desolate; the foxes walk on it.

19 But you, LORD, abide forever; your throne is from generation to generation.

20 Why do you keep on forgetting us? Why do you forsake us so long?

21 Restore us to you, LORD, and we shall be restored; renew our days as in former times,

22 unless you have completely rejected us and are angry with us beyond measure.