Lamentations 5

A Plea for Mercy

⁵Remember, O Lord, what has befallen us;

look, and see our disgrace!^*

²Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers,

our homes to aliens.^*

³We have become orphans, fatherless;

our mothers are like widows.

⁴We must pay for the water we drink;

the wood we get must be bought.

⁵With a yoke^o on our necks we are hard driven;

we are weary; we are given no rest.^*

⁶We have made a pact with^p Egypt and Assyria

to get enough bread.^*

⁷Our ancestors sinned; they are no more,

and we bear their iniquities.^*

⁸Slaves rule over us;

there is no one to deliver us from their hand.^*

⁹We get our bread at the peril of our lives,

because of the sword in the wilderness.

¹⁰Our skin is black as an oven

from the scorching heat of famine.^*

¹¹Women are raped in Zion,

young women in the towns of Judah.^*

¹²Princes are hung up by their hands;

no respect is shown to the elders.^*

¹³Young men are compelled to grind,

and boys stagger under loads of wood.^*

¹⁴The old men have left the city gate,

the young men their music.

¹⁵The joy of our hearts has ceased;

our dancing has been turned to mourning.^*

¹⁶The crown has fallen from our head;

woe to us, for we have sinned!

¹⁷Because of this our hearts are sick;

because of these things our eyes have grown dim:^*

¹⁸because of Mount Zion, which lies desolate;

jackals prowl over it.

¹⁹But you, O Lord, reign forever;

your throne endures to all generations.^*

²⁰Why have you forgotten us completely?

Why have you forsaken us these many days?^*

²¹Restore us to yourself, O Lord, that we may be restored;

renew our days as of old—^*

²²unless you have utterly rejected us

and are angry with us beyond measure.^*