Lamentations 5:1–22

¹ Remember, O LORD, what has happened to us. Look and see our disgrace! ² Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, our houses to foreigners. ³ We have become fatherless orphans; our mothers are widows. ⁴ We must buy the water we drink; our wood comes at a price. ⁵ We are closely pursued; we are weary and find no rest. ⁶ We submitted to Egypt and Assyria to get enough bread. ⁷ Our fathers sinned and are no more, but we bear their punishment. ⁸ Slaves rule over us; there is no one to deliver us from their hands. ⁹ We get our bread at the risk of our lives because of the sword in the wilderness. ¹⁰ Our skin is as hot as an oven with fever from our hunger. ¹¹ Women have been ravished in Zion, virgins in the cities of Judah. ¹² Princes have been hung up by their hands; elders receive no respect. ¹³ Young men toil at millstones; boys stagger under loads of wood. ¹⁴ The elders have left the city gate; the young men have stopped their music. ¹⁵ Joy has left our hearts; our dancing has turned to mourning. ¹⁶ The crown has fallen from our head. Woe to us, for we have sinned! ¹⁷ Because of this, our hearts are faint; because of these, our eyes grow dim— ¹⁸ because of Mount Zion, which lies desolate, patrolled by foxes. ¹⁹ You, O LORD, reign forever; Your throne endures from generation to generation. ²⁰ Why have You forgotten us forever? Why have You forsaken us for so long? ²¹ Restore us to Yourself, O LORD, so we may return; renew our days as of old, ²² unless You have utterly rejected us and remain angry with us beyond measure.