Lamentations 5

Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition	CATHOLIC PUBLIC DOMAIN
1 Remember, O LORD, what has befallen us; behold, and see our disgrace!	1 Remember, O Lord, what has befallen us. Consider and look kindly upon our disgrace.
2 Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, our homes to aliens.	2 Our inheritance has been turned over to foreigners; our houses to outsiders.
3 We have become orphans, fatherless; our mothers are like widows.	3 We have become orphans without a father; our mothers are like widows.
4 We must pay for the water we drink, the wood we get must be bought.	4 We paid for our drinking water. We acquired our wood for a price.
5 With a yoke on our necks we are hard driven; we are weary, we are given no rest.	5 We were dragged by our necks. Being weary, no rest was given to us.
6 We have given the hand to Egypt, and to Assyria, to get bread enough.	6 We have given our hand to Egypt and to the Assyrians, so that we may be satisfied with bread.
7 Our fathers sinned, and are no more; and we bear their iniquities.	7 Our fathers have sinned, and are not. And we have carried their iniquities.
8 Slaves rule over us; there is none to deliver us from their hand.	8 Servants have become rulers over us. There was no one to redeem us from their hand.
9 We get our bread at the peril of our lives, because of the sword in the wilderness.	9 We obtained our bread at the risk of our lives, before the face of the sword, in the wilderness.
10 Our skin is hot as an oven with the burning heat of famine.	10 Our skin was burned, as if by an oven, before the face of the tempest of the famine.
11 Women are ravished in Zion, virgins in the towns of Judah.	11 They humiliated the women in Zion and the virgins in the cities of Judah.
12 Princes are hung up by their hands; no respect is shown to the elders.	12 The leaders were suspended by their hand. They were not ashamed before the faces of the elders.
13 Young men are compelled to grind at the mill; and boys stagger under loads of wood.	13 They have sexually abused the adolescents, and the children were corrupted in the wood.
14 The old men have quit the city 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 dancing has been turned to mourning.	15 The gladness of our heart has failed, our singing has been turned into mourning.
16 The crown has fallen from our head; woe to us, for we have sinned!	16 The crown has fallen from our head. Woe to us, for we have sinned.
17 For this our heart has become sick, for these things our eyes have grown dim,	17 Because of this, our heart became gloomy; for this reason, our eyes have been darkened:
18 for Mount Zion which lies desolate; jackals prowl over it.	18 because of mount Zion, because it was ruined. Foxes have wandered upon it.
19 But thou, O LORD, dost reign for ever; thy throne endures to all generations.	19 But you, O Lord, shall remain for eternity, your throne from generation to generation.
20 Why dost thou forget us for ever, why dost thou so long forsake us?	20 Why would you forget us forever? Why would you forsake us for a long time?
21 Restore us to thyself, O LORD, that we may be restored! Renew our days as of old!	21 Convert us, O Lord, to you, and we shall be converted. Renew our days, as from the beginning.
22 Or hast thou utterly rejected us? Art thou exceedingly angry with us?	22 But you have utterly rejected us; you are vehemently angry against us.