Lamentations 5

¹Remember , O Lord, what has befallen us; look , and see our disgrace !

²Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers , our homes to foreigners .

³We have become orphans , fatherless ; our mothers are like widows .

⁴We must pay for the water we drink ; the wood we get must be bought .

⁵Our pursuers are at our necks ; we are weary ; we are given no rest .

⁶We have given the hand to Egypt , and to Assyria , to get bread enough .

⁷Our fathers sinned , and are no more ; and we bear their iniquities .

⁸Slaves rule over us; there is none to deliver us from their hand .

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

¹⁰Our skin is hot as an oven with the burning heat of famine .

¹¹Women are raped in Zion , young women in the towns of Judah .

¹²Princes are hung up by their hands ; no respect is shown to the elders .

¹³Young men are compelled to grind at the mill, and boys stagger under loads of wood .

¹⁴The old men have left the city gate , the young men their music .

¹⁵The joy of our hearts has ceased ; our dancing has been turned to mourning .

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

¹⁷For this our heart has become sick , for these things our eyes have grown dim ,

¹⁸for Mount Zion which lies desolate ; jackals prowl over it.

¹⁹But you, O Lord, reign forever ; your throne endures to all generations .

²⁰Why do you forget us forever , why do you forsake us for so many days ?

²¹Restore us to yourself, O Lord, that we may be restored ! Renew our days as of old —

²²unless you have utterly rejected us, and you remain exceedingly angry with us.