Lamentations 5

NEW AMERICAN BIBLE	CATHOLIC PUBLIC DOMAIN
1 Remember, O LORD, what has befallen us, look, and see our disgrace:	1 Remember, O Lord, what has befallen us. Consider and look kindly upon our disgrace.
2 Our inherited lands have been turned over to strangers, our homes to foreigners.	2 Our inheritance has been turned over to foreigners; our houses to outsiders.
3 We have become orphans, fatherless; widowed are our mothers.	3 We have become orphans without a father; our mothers are like widows.
4 The water we drink we must buy, for our own wood we must pay.	4 We paid for our drinking water. We acquired our wood for a price.
5 On our necks is the yoke of those who drive us; we are worn out, but allowed no rest.	5 We were dragged by our necks. Being weary, no rest was given to us.
6 To Egypt we submitted, and to Assyria, to fill our need of bread.	6 We have given our hand to Egypt and to the Assyrians, so that we may be satisfied with bread.
7 Our fathers, who sinned, are no more; but we bear their guilt.	7 Our fathers have sinned, and are not. And we have carried their iniquities.
8 Slaves rule over us; there is no one to rescue us from their hands.	8 Servants have become rulers over us. There was no one to redeem us from their hand.
9 At the peril of our lives we bring in our sustenance, in the face of the desert heat;	9 We obtained our bread at the risk of our lives, before the face of the sword, in the wilderness.
10 Our skin is shriveled up, as though by a furnace, with the searing blasts of famine.	10 Our skin was burned, as if by an oven, before the face of the tempest of the famine.
11 The wives in Zion were ravished by the enemy, the maidens in the cities of Judah;	11 They humiliated the women in Zion and the virgins in the cities of Judah.
12 Princes were gibbeted by them, elders shown no respect.	12 The leaders were suspended by their hand. They were not ashamed before the faces of the elders.
13 The youths carry the millstones, boys stagger under their loads of wood;	13 They have sexually abused the adolescents, and the children were corrupted in the wood.
14 The old men have abandoned the gate, the young men their music.	14 The elders have ceased from the gates, the youths from the choir of the psalms.
15 The joy of our hearts has ceased, our dance has turned into mourning;	15 The gladness of our heart has failed, our singing has been turned into mourning.
16 The garlands have fallen from our heads: woe to us, for we have sinned!	16 The crown has fallen from our head. Woe to us, for we have sinned.
17 Over this our hearts are sick, at this our eyes grow dim:	17 Because of this, our heart became gloomy; for this reason, our eyes have been darkened:
18 That Mount Zion should be desolate, with jackals roaming there!	18 because of mount Zion, because it was ruined. Foxes have wandered upon it.
19 You, O LORD, are enthroned forever; your throne stands from age to age.	19 But you, O Lord, shall remain for eternity, your throne from generation to generation.
20 Why, then, should you forget us, abandon us so long a time?	20 Why would you forget us forever? Why would you forsake us for a long time?
21 Lead us back to you, O LORD, that we may be restored: give us anew such days as we had of old.	21 Convert us, O Lord, to you, and we shall be converted. Renew our days, as from the beginning.
22 For now you have indeed rejected us, and in full measure turned your wrath against us.	22 But you have utterly rejected us; you are vehemently angry against us.