Lamentations, 5

¹ Remember, O Jehovah, what has befallen us. Look and see our disgrace.

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

³ We have become orphans without a father; our mothers are like widows.

⁴ We must pay to drink our own water, and our own wood comes at a price.

⁵ Those pursuing us are at our neck; We are weary, but we are given no rest.

⁶ We hold out our hand to Egypt and to As·syrʹi·a, to get enough bread to eat.

⁷ Our forefathers who sinned are no more, but we must bear their errors.

⁸ Servants now rule over us; there is no one to snatch us from their hand.

⁹ We bring in our bread at the risk of our life,^*1 because of the sword of the wilderness.

¹⁰ Our skin has become as hot as a furnace, because of the pangs of hunger.

¹¹ The wives in Zion they have humiliated,^*1 the virgins in the cities of Judah.

¹² Princes were hanged by their hand, and elders were shown no respect.

¹³ Young men carry the hand mill, and boys stumble under loads of wood.

¹⁴ The elders are gone from the city gate; young men do not play their music.

¹⁵ The joy is gone from our heart; our dancing has turned into mourning.

¹⁶ The crown has fallen from our head. Woe to us, because we have sinned!

¹⁷ Because of this our heart is sick, And because of these things our eyes have grown dim,

¹⁸ Because of Mount Zion, which is desolate; foxes now roam on it.

¹⁹ As for you, O Jehovah, you sit enthroned forever. Your throne is for generation after generation.

²⁰ Why do you forget us forever and abandon us for so long a time?

²¹ Bring us back to yourself, O Jehovah, and we will readily return to you. Renew our days as in those of old.

²² However, you have utterly rejected us. You remain intensely angry with us.