Lamentations 5

¹Remember, O Jehovah, what hath befallen us, Look attentively, and see our reproach. ²Our inheritance hath been turned to strangers, Our houses to foreigners. ³Orphans we have been—without a father, our mothers are as widows. ⁴Our water for money we have drunk, Our wood for a price doth come. ⁵For our neck we have been pursued, We have laboured—there hath been no rest for us. ⁶To Egypt we have given a hand, To Asshur, to be satisfied with bread. ⁷Our fathers have sinned—they are not, We their iniquities have borne. ⁸Servants have ruled over us, A deliverer there is none from their hand. ⁹With our lives we bring in our bread, Because of the sword of the wilderness. ¹⁰Our skin as an oven hath been burning, Because of the raging of the famine. ¹¹Wives in Zion they have humbled, Virgins—in cities of Judah. ¹²Princes by their hand have been hanged, The faces of elders have not been honoured. ¹³Young men to grind they have taken, And youths with wood have stumbled. ¹⁴The aged from the gate have ceased, Young men from their song. ¹⁵Ceased hath the joy of our heart, Turned to mourning hath been our dancing. ¹⁶Fallen hath the crown from our head, Woe is now to us, for we have sinned.

¹⁷For this hath our heart been sick, For these have our eyes been dim. ¹⁸For the mount of Zion—that is desolate, Foxes have gone up on it. ¹⁹Thou, O Jehovah, to the age remainest, Thy throne to generation and generation. ²⁰Why for ever dost Thou forget us? Thou forsakest us for length of days! ²¹Turn us back, O Jehovah, unto Thee, And we turn back, renew our days as of old. ²²For hast Thou utterly rejected us? Thou hast been wroth against us—exceedingly?

Chapter 1