Lamentations 5
1 Yahweh, think about what has happened to us. See that we have been disgraced.
Remember, O LORD, what is come upon us: consider, and behold our reproach.
2 Foreigners have seized our property, [and now] they live in our homes.
Our inheritance is turned to strangers, our houses to aliens.
3 [Our enemies] have killed our fathers; they caused our mothers to become widows.
We are orphans and fatherless, our mothers [are] as widows.
4 [Now] we are required to pay for water to drink, and we must pay [a lot of money] for firewood.
We have drunken our water for money; our wood is sold unto us.
5 [It is as though] those who pursue us are at our heels; we are exhausted, but they do not allow us to rest.
Our necks [are] under persecution: we labour, [and] have no rest.
6 In order to get enough food [to remain alive], we went to Egypt and Assyria and offered to work [for the people there].
We have given the hand [to] the Egyptians, [and to] the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread.
7 Our ancestors sinned, and now they are dead, but we are being punished for the sins that they committed.
Our fathers have sinned, [and are] not; and we have borne their iniquities.
8 [Officials from Babylon] who were [previously] slaves [now] rule over us, and there is no one who can rescue us from their power.
Servants have ruled over us: [there is] none that doth deliver [us] out of their hand.
9 When we roam around in the desert searching for food, we are in danger of being killed, because people there kill strangers with their swords.
We gat our bread with [the peril of] our lives because of the sword of the wilderness.
10 Our skin has become hot like [SIM] an oven, and we have a very high fever because we are extremely hungry.
Our skin was black like an oven because of the terrible famine.
11 [Our enemies] have raped the women in Jerusalem, [and they have done that to] the young women in [all] the towns of Judea.
They ravished the women in Zion, [and] the maids in the cities of Judah.
12 [Our enemies] have hanged our leaders, and they do not respect our elders.
Princes are hanged up by their hand: the faces of elders were not honoured.
13 They force our young men to grind [flour] with millstones, and boys stagger while they [are forced to] carry [heavy] loads of firewood.
They took the young men to grind, and the children fell under the wood.
14 [Our] elders no longer sit at the city gates [to make important decisions]; the young men no longer play their musical [instruments].
The elders have ceased from the gate, the young men from their musick.
15 We [SYN] are no longer joyful; instead of dancing [joyfully], we now mourn.
The joy of our heart is ceased; our dance is turned into mourning.
16 The wreaths [of flowers] have fallen off our heads. Terrible things have happened to us because of the sins that we committed.
The crown is fallen [from] our head: woe unto us, that we have sinned!
17 We [SYN] are tired and discouraged [IDM], and we cannot see well because our eyes are [full of tears].
For this our heart is faint; for these [things] our eyes are dim.
18 Jerusalem is [completely] deserted, and jackals/wolves prowl around it.
Because of the mountain of Zion, which is desolate, the foxes walk upon it.
19 But Yahweh, you rule forever! You continue to rule [MTY] from one generation to the next generation.
Thou, O LORD, remainest for ever; thy throne from generation to generation.
20 [So] why [RHQ] have you forgotten us? Why [RHQ] have you abandoned us for a very long time?
Wherefore dost thou forget us for ever, [and] forsake us so long time?
21 [Please] enable us to return to you, and enable us to prosper [MTY] as we did previously.
Turn thou us unto thee, O LORD, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old.
22 Please do that, because we hope that [RHQ] you have not rejected us forever and that [RHQ] you do not continue to be extremely angry with us!
But thou hast utterly rejected us; thou art very wroth against us.
