Lamentations 5

¹ Remember, O LORD, what has befallen us, look, and see our disgrace:

² Our inherited lands have been turned over to strangers, our homes to foreigners.

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

⁴ The water we drink we must buy, for our own wood we must pay.

⁵ On our necks is the yoke of those who drive us; we are worn out, but allowed no rest.

⁶ To Egypt we submitted, and to Assyria, to fill our need of bread.

⁷ Our fathers, who sinned, are no more; but we bear their guilt.

⁸ Slaves rule over us; there is no one to rescue us from their hands.

⁹ At the peril of our lives we bring in our sustenance, in the face of the desert heat;

¹⁰ Our skin is shriveled up, as though by a furnace, with the searing blasts of famine.

¹¹ The wives in Zion were ravished by the enemy, the maidens in the cities of Judah;

¹² Princes were gibbeted by them, elders shown no respect.

¹³ The youths carry the millstones, boys stagger under their loads of wood;

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

¹⁵ The joy of our hearts has ceased, our dance has turned into mourning;

¹⁶ The garlands have fallen from our heads: woe to us, for we have sinned!

¹⁷ Over this our hearts are sick, at this our eyes grow dim:

¹⁸ That Mount Zion should be desolate, with jackals roaming there!

¹⁹ You, O LORD, are enthroned forever; your throne stands from age to age.

²⁰ Why, then, should you forget us, abandon us so long a time?

²¹ Lead us back to you, O LORD, that we may be restored: give us anew such days as we had of old.

²² For now you have indeed rejected us, and in full measure turned your wrath against us.