Lamentations
5 Remember, O Jehovah, what has befallen us.
Look and see our disgrace.+
2 Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, our houses to foreigners.+
3 We have become orphans without a father; our mothers are like widows.+
4 We must pay to drink our own water,+ and our own wood comes at a price.
6 We hold out our hand to Egypt+ and to As·syrʹi·a,+ to get enough bread to eat.
7 Our forefathers who sinned are no more, but we must bear their errors.
8 Servants now rule over us; there is no one to snatch us from their hand.
9 We bring in our bread at the risk of our life,*+ because of the sword of the wilderness.
10 Our skin has become as hot as a furnace, because of the pangs of hunger.+
11 The wives in Zion they have humiliated,* the virgins in the cities of Judah.+
12 Princes were hanged by their hand,+ and elders were shown no respect.+
13 Young men carry the hand mill, and boys stumble under loads of wood.
14 The elders are gone from the city gate;+ young men do not play their music.+
15 The joy is gone from our heart; our dancing has turned into mourning.+
16 The crown has fallen from our head. Woe to us, because we have sinned!
17 Because of this our heart is sick,+
And because of these things our eyes have grown dim,+
18 Because of Mount Zion, which is desolate;+ foxes now roam on it.
19 As for you, O Jehovah, you sit enthroned forever.
Your throne is for generation after generation.+
20 Why do you forget us forever and abandon us for so long a time?+
21 Bring us back to yourself, O Jehovah, and we will readily return to you.+
Renew our days as in those of old.+
22 However, you have utterly rejected us.
You remain intensely angry with us.+