Lamentations 5

Restore Us to Yourself, O Lord

¹ O LORD, [earnestly] remember what has come upon us! Look down and see our reproach (our national disgrace)! ² Our inheritance has fallen over to strangers, our houses to foreigners. ³ We have become orphans and fatherless; our mothers are like widows. ⁴ We have had to pay money to drink the water that belongs to us; our [own] wood is sold to us. ⁵ Our pursuers are upon our necks [like a yoke]; we are weary and are allowed no rest. ⁶ We have given the hand [as a pledge of fidelity and submission] to the Egyptians and to the Assyrians [merely] to get food to satisfy [our hunger]. ⁷ Our fathers sinned and are no more, and ₁ we have borne their iniquities. ⁸ Servants and slaves rule over us; there is none to deliver us out of their hands. ⁹ We get our bread at the peril of our lives because of the sword of the wilderness [the wild Arabs, who may attack if we venture into the fields to reap our harvests]. ¹⁰ Our skin glows and is parched as from [the heat of] an oven because of the burning heat of [the fever of] famine. ¹¹ They ravished the women in Zion, the virgins in the cities of Judah. ¹² They hung princes by their hands; the persons of elders were not respected. ¹³ Young men carried millstones, and boys fell [staggering] under [burdens of] wood. ¹⁴ The elders have ceased from [congregating at] the city's gate, the young men from their music. ¹⁵ Ceased is the joy of our hearts; our dancing has turned into mourning. ¹⁶ The crown has fallen from our head [our honor is brought to the dust]! Woe to us, for we have sinned! ¹⁷ Because of this our hearts are faint and sick; because of these things our eyes are dim and see darkly. ¹⁸ As for Mount Zion, which lies desolate, the jackals prowl over it! ¹⁹ But You, O Lord, remain and reign forever; Your throne endures from generation to [all] generations. ²⁰ Why do You forget us forever? Why do You forsake us so long? ²¹ Turn us to Yourself, O Lord, and we shall be turned and restored! Renew our days as of old!-- ²² Or have You utterly rejected us? ₂ Or are You exceedingly angry with us [still]?