Lamentations 5

¹Remember, O Lord, what is come upon us: consider, and behold our reproach.

²Our inheritance is turned to strangers, our houses to aliens.

³We are orphans and fatherless, our mothers are as widows.

⁴We have drunken our water for money; our wood is sold unto us.

⁵Our necks are under persecution: we labour, and have no rest.

⁶We have given the hand to the Egyptians, and to the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread.

⁷Our fathers have sinned, and are not; and we have borne their iniquities.

⁸Servants have ruled over us: there is none that doth deliver us out of their hand.

⁹We gat our bread with the peril of our lives because of the sword of the wilderness.

¹⁰Our skin was black like an oven because of the terrible famine.

¹¹They ravished the women in Zion, and the maids in the cities of Judah.

¹²Princes are hanged up by their hand: the faces of elders were not honoured.

¹³They took the young men to grind, and the children fell under the wood.

¹⁴The elders have ceased from the gate, the young men from their musick.

¹⁵The joy of our heart is ceased; our dance is turned into mourning.

¹⁶The crown is fallen from our head: woe unto us, that we have sinned!

¹⁷For this our heart is faint; for these things our eyes are dim.

¹⁸Because of the mountain of Zion, which is desolate, the foxes walk upon it.

¹⁹Thou, O Lord, remainest for ever; thy throne from generation to generation.

²⁰Wherefore dost thou forget us for ever, and forsake us so long time?

²¹Turn thou us unto thee, O Lord, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old.

²²But thou hast utterly rejected us; thou art very wroth against us.

¹Keep in mind, O Lord, what has come to us: take note and see our shame.

²Our heritage is given up to men of strange lands, our houses to those who are not our countrymen.

³We are children without fathers, our mothers are like widows.

⁴We give money for a drink of water, we get our wood for a price.

⁵Our attackers are on our necks: overcome with weariness, we have no rest.

⁶We have given our hands to the Egyptians and to the Assyrians so that we might have enough bread.

⁷Our fathers were sinners and are dead; and the weight of their evil-doing is on us.

⁸Servants are ruling over us, and there is no one to make us free from their hands.

⁹We put our lives in danger to get our bread, because of the sword of the waste land.

¹⁰Our skin is heated like an oven because of our burning heat from need of food.

¹¹They took by force the women in Zion, the virgins in the towns of Judah.

¹²Their hands put princes to death by hanging: the faces of old men were not honoured.

¹³The young men were crushing the grain, and the boys were falling under the wood.

¹⁴The old men are no longer seated in the doorway, and the music of the young men has come to an end.

¹⁵The joy of our hearts is ended; our dancing is changed into sorrow.

¹⁶The crown has been taken from our head: sorrow is ours, for we are sinners.

¹⁷Because of this our hearts are feeble; for these things our eyes are dark;

¹⁸Because of the mountain of Zion which is a waste; jackals go over it.

¹⁹You, O Lord, are seated as King for ever; the seat of your power is eternal.

²⁰Why have we gone from your memory for ever? why have you been turned away from us for so long?

²¹Make us come back to you, O Lord, and let us be turned; make our days new again as in the past.

²²But you have quite given us up; you are full of wrath against us.