Lamentations 5

A Request for Mercy

5Remember, O Yahweh, what has become of us;

take note, and see our disgrace!

²Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers,

our houses, to foreigners.

³We have become orphans, fatherless,

our mothers are like widows.

⁴We pay for water with money,^a

our wood comes to us at a price.

⁵We are driven on our necks;

we are weary, there is no rest for us.

⁶We have made a deal with Egypt and Assyria

to be satisfied with food.

⁷Our fathers have sinned, they are no more;

we bear their iniquity.

⁸Slaves rule over us;

there is no one to deliver us from their hand.

⁹We risk our life for food^b

because of the sword of the desert.

¹⁰Our skin is hot like an oven

because of the scorching famine.

¹¹They raped women in Zion,

young women^c in the cities of Judah.

¹²They hang princes by their hand;

they do not show respect before elders.

¹³Young men must carry a hand-mill

and boys stumble under the wood.

¹⁴Elders are no longer at the gate,

young men no longer play stringed instruments.

¹⁵The joy of our hearts has stopped;

our circle-dancing has changed to a mourning ceremony.

¹⁶The crown has fallen from our head;

woe to us, for we have sinned!

¹⁷Because of this, our heart has become faint,

because of these, our eyes have become dim.

¹⁸Because of Mount Zion, which lies desolate,

foxes tread on it.^d

¹⁹You, O Yahweh, will sit forever

on your throne for generation to generation.

²⁰Why have you forgotten us forever?

Why have you forsaken us for so long?^e

²¹Restore us to you, O Yahweh, that we will be restored;

renew our days as of old.

²²Unless you have utterly rejected us,

unless you are angry with us beyond measure.