Lamentations 5

5:1

Remember, O LORD, what has happened to us. Look and see our disgrace!

5:2

Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, our houses to foreigners.

5:3

We have become fatherless orphans; our mothers are widows.

5:4

We must buy the water we drink; our wood comes at a price.

5:5

We are closely pursued; we are weary and find no rest.

5:6

We submitted to Egypt and Assyria to get enough bread.

5:7

Our fathers sinned and are no more, but we bear their punishment.

5:8

Slaves rule over us; there is no one to deliver us from their hands.

5:9

We get our bread at the risk of our lives because of the sword in the wilderness.

5:10

Our skin is as hot as an oven with fever from our hunger.

5:11

Women have been ravished in Zion, virgins in the cities of Judah.

5:12

Princes have been hung up by their hands; elders receive no respect.

5:13

Young men toil at millstones; boys stagger under loads of wood.

5:14

The elders have left the city gate; the young men have stopped their music.

5:15

Joy has left our hearts; our dancing has turned to mourning.

5:16

The crown has fallen from our head. Woe to us, for we have sinned!

5:17

Because of this, our hearts are faint; because of these, our eyes grow dim—

5:18

because of Mount Zion, which lies desolate, patrolled by foxes.

5:19

You, O LORD, reign forever; Your throne endures from generation to generation.

5:20

Why have You forgotten us forever? Why have You forsaken us for so long?

5:21

Restore us to Yourself, O LORD, so we may return; renew our days as of old,

5:22

unless You have utterly rejected us and remain angry with us beyond measure.